Gods & Monsters
by The Last Letter
Summary: Eight years after the Huntsclan achieved global domination, Jake doesn't know how much longer he can go on. He is separated from his family, his friends, and there is no end in sight. Until Haley calls, informing him that she has found the Huntsgirl in an asylum. With the Huntsgirl in his grasp, Jake thinks the war might end, if only he can break through her madness.
1. Cruel World

It had been over a week since Jake had a good night's sleep and he crept along the alley streets, thinking of nothing of his bed in Magic Town. If he ever got there, if something else didn't happen. The sun was well-up but Jake took comfort in that. Days continued almost normally. For the full humans, at least. They were the ones that the Huntsclan prized. Regular humans, pursuing science and innovation. Ever since the Huntsclan had launched their global takeover and won the fight, things had been hard on everyone, though, even the regular humans. The Huntsclan were as rigid with the people as they were with their own members. They hunted magical creatures by night and by day, they made raids on workplaces to ensure everyone was of human birth, kept people on strict schedules, and caused general mayhem to remind people who was in charge.

Jake slipped into the entrance of Magic Town and transformed into a dragon before heading into the heart of town. It was more crowded than ever before. Although there were many magical pockets about the country, more had fled toward New York and had made it clear that they were there because of him and Gramps, because they believed that they were safer in the company of the American and Chinese dragons.

Jake didn't know if it was true. He knew that he was trying to keep people safe but he also knew that he had been living in this hellscape of Huntsclan rule since he was seventeen and all that he had felt for years was failure. In his youth, Jake had tussled with the Huntsclan and he had felt that, although they were stronger, they were not impenetrable. He won as many fights against the Huntsgirl as he lost and he had even gotten into their fortress a time or two.

And then they had been blindsided.

"Morning, American dragon!"

"Morning!"

Jake raised his hand to a group of creatures. If he was their hope, he had to let them hope. He waded through the magical creatures who were hanging out on every available surface outside now that they sun was out. He would say this for the magic community: there was no refugee left out on the street at night and everyone was found a bed to sleep in. During the day, so that spaces could be cleaned, the streets became more crowded.

Tired as he was, Jake dropped by Veronica's stall in the magic market and dropped off the bags of stolen goods. He was the American Dragon and his moral compass was always supposed to point straight. But he knew enough of Robin Hood – even though he had never finished high school – to know that robbing from the Huntsclan to take care of his own was more moral than letting the Huntsclan reap the benefits of what they were putting humans through.

Veronica peeked in the bag. "Fresh fruit! Jake, you're a saint."

Jake held a finger to his lips. "No names, Veronica. You know that."

"Saint Dragon," she drawled sarcastically but went back to gushing. "I just wish there was –"

Jake reached into his pocket. "Oranges? I got one for you. Fu says the fruit orchard is starting to actually grow properly again, though, now that he's got the park faeries on the job."

Veronica held the orange close to her chest, cradling it for herself. "Thanks, dragon."

"No problem." Despite himself, Jake yawned. "I gotta try and sleep. See you later."

She waved until he was out of sight. Jake was tempted to take flight and wing his way over the short distance to the little apartment that he and Gramps and Fu all shared now that their shop in New York had to be vacated. He knew that not a lot of people had as much space as the three of them were given and he tried to be grateful for it. But, he had lost Gramps' home and shop and he could no longer visit his home with his parents. He had made his choice when had owned up to his dragon side and decided to fight and he hadn't seen his parents in eight years.

Or his sister.

Haley had only been eleven when the Huntsclan had taken over. She had decided to stay with their parents, claim their entirely human heritage, and stay on the inside. She and Jake texted, e-mailed, and corresponded through any way that they could, but Jake knew it wasn't the same. He tried not to think of it too often. He tried not to think of what she was doing now that she was nineteen and living out in the world – living in the Huntsclan's world.

He opened the front door dragged his body into his house and then immediately turned into the little room that was his and collapsed on the bed. He could feel bumps and bruises beginning to emerge and he was pretty sure that he was bleeding in three separate spots but none of that mattered to him now. Fu would fix him up and make sure that he drank some of the disgusting healing elixir he had taken to making by the massive cauldron-full, trying to keep the troops going. It worked and had an effect more potent than a thousand energy drinks and Jake was sure that it was the only reason he hadn't collapsed completely yet. Even so, the taste was vile and Jake hated taking it.

He reached down to pull the blankets up around him when his cell phone began to ring. Jake almost didn't look at it, knowing that whoever it was would almost certainly contact Gramps through Fu after it. But his conscience wouldn't let him. If it was someone who he loved who was in trouble, he had to be there.

"Hello?"

"Jake!" Haley exclaimed. "Oh, Jake, you won't believe it – you have to come!"

"Are you hurt? Are you okay? What's going on?" Jake forced himself to sit up and make his brain work.

"I'm shadowing one of my professors in a psychiatric hospital," Haley said in a low voice, "and there's a patient here … Jake, it's the Huntsgirl."

"_What!? _Haley, text me the address. I'm on my way."

(-.-)

Jake strode into the hospital like he belonged there. He had put on nice pants, a good shirt, and his shoes weren't covered in dirt. No one glanced twice at him as he made his way across the lobby and into the elevator, jamming the button for the top floor. It was the secure floor, for the worst patients. Jake knew that Haley wouldn't ever misidentify the mark of the Huntsclan – who could, now that it was on every flag across the word – but he didn't want to believe it was the Huntsgirl that was in this hospital.

The Huntsgirl had been dead for over a year. Supposedly. Jake had watched it happen – the horrific explosion that had taken her and two others, leaving nothing of their bodies to be found, though the Huntsclan and magic folk alike had searched. Jake found it hard to believe that she was still alive and wasn't in the custody of the Huntsclan. The Huntsmaster wasn't a careless man. Careless men did not achieve world domination.

Haley met him outside the elevator and, for a moment, they just stared at one another. She had cut her hair shorter, she was wearing make-up now, and she was much taller. But, to Jake's surprise, she didn't feel like a stranger. She felt like the same girl who had grown up down the hall from him, too smart for her own good, the one who he had constantly been annoyed by but had always loved. Despite the fact that they had more important things to attend to and that Jake had to get in and out as quickly as possible, Jake still had to hug her.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"And you look like crap," Haley said. "Do you ever sleep?"

"No. Come on, let's go see this woman."

"This way," Haley said. "She's got the mark in the same spot. She's medicated right now but she's utterly mad when she's awake, in a bad way."

"What do you mean?"

"She was awake when I was following Professor Carroway. She looked right at me and said 'where are your wings, little bird?' Like she _knew_."

"There's no way she knows. She's never displayed any precognition."

"In here."

They slipped into the room. On the bed was a slight blonde woman, restraints on both wrists, evidence of burns along the exposed parts of her body. Jake crept closer and inspected her wrist. That was the mark of the Clan, all right, in the same spot that the Huntsgirl's had been. She had the same blonde hair, Jake opened one of her eyes and they were the blue of the Huntsgirl's, and she looked about the right age. The burns could have come from the explosion thought to have taken her life. Jake stood at the end of the bed and stared down at her. He had never seen the Huntsgirl's face but he had to admit that Haley was probably right. Of course, Haley had never been wrong in her life and there was more than enough evidence to prove her identity. At least as far as Jake was concerned.

The question was: what was she doing, undiscovered in a civilian hospital?

Unless she wasn't undiscovered at all. Unless it was a trap and she was placed here as a lure, expecting that someone magical would discover her and kidnap her and then she would be inside of Magic Town.

"Why is she still here? Why hasn't the hospital reported her to the Clan? Why haven't they taken her back?"

"They can't see it," Haley said. "I asked Professor about why she was so scarred and pointed at the one on her wrist and she said they were all just burn marks."

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be."

Jake stared down at her. "Okay, well, I have to go talk to Gramps and then we'll have to get her out of here. Send me as much information on her as you can steal, Haley."

"I will."

Jake hugged her again and then he quickly made his way back out. He wished that he could have spent more time with her but it wouldn't do if the Huntsclan saw him and became suspicious. Officially, Jake Long didn't exist anymore and had died in the early days of the takeover. The same with Gramps. It was too dangerous to have them regularly living in the thick of the Huntsclan's regime because they were bound to be noticed. And even though Jake agreed, he missed his friends and he missed his family and, most days, he still couldn't believe that this had happened at all. He thumbed the amulet around his neck for a moment, lost in thought, and they told himself to get moving.

He snuck back into Magic Town – which was harder to achieve in the middle of the day – and went to wake his grandfather. If Jake was suffering, the old man was tortured. Fu, it seemed, never actually slept anymore. He gathered them in the kitchen and while Fu scared up food and potions, Jake read them the messages that had come in from Haley.

The patient called herself Rose and was on a long list of medications. She was violent and delusional. The doctors suspected a psychotic break due to trauma, since her body was badly scarred.

"I'm sure it's her," Jake said. "We need to go and get her."

"It's a trap," Gramps argued immediately and Jake had known that he would.

"What if it's not? We need to act fast – Haley won't be allowed to shadow her professor there forever."

"And we have the …" Fu said and he pointed downward.

There was a jail, built below where the dragons and Fu were living. It was a new addition to Magic Town and a somber one but one of the necessary spoils of war. They had only needed to use it twice in eight years and each time had ended in a brutal suicide. It was necessary, Jake knew, in times of war, but he hated to think of it. He hated to use it. But the thought of having the Huntsgirl, and all of her knowledge, in their grasp was something that he could not ignore. The things that she knew could help the magical community end the tyranny for themselves and for humans.

"And all of those prescriptions," Lao Shi said scornfully. "We have no hope to replace those."

"Fu?" Jake asked.

"I'd have to go see the apothecary and go to my books but we could do it. We know the magic infused cells would keep anyone contained – even her," Fu said. "Gramps, this is the biggest chance that we've had in a while. I think the kid is right and that we need to take it."

Jake really didn't think that Gramps would agree. They were throwing caution to the wind and inviting someone who was just as cruel, cunning, and ruthless as the Huntsmaster himself into their town. It could go very, _very _wrong but if it didn't … Oh! If it didn't. Jake didn't want to get wrapped up in daydreams of what it would be like to be normal again. To actually hang out with Trixie and Spud, to skateboard and not constantly be looking over his shoulder, to have a good night's sleep, to go on a date! It was the world that he had been denied – that many had been denied – and he tried not to think of it often, knowing that it might just come about that he would be very old when he got his life back, if he ever did at all. In the moment, though, at the table with Gramps, Jake couldn't get rid of the vision.

"Jake," Gramps said, "are you still in contact with your friends?"

"Yes," Jake said. "Why?"

"We will need Spud. And we will strike this afternoon."

**I have been super excited about this project and I've wanted to share it with you guys for a while but I made myself wait until I had some chapters pre-written. It's a little bit different from **_**Love Of The Magic Kind**_** (the last ADJL story I published, if you missed it!) but that's why I've become so wrapped up in it so let me know what you think!**

**Read and review or catch up with me on tumblr, where I can be found at we – are – all – of – legend – now!**

**~TLL~**


	2. Big Bad Wolf

Jake tried not to appear nervous as he loitered on the street. At any moment, Huntsclan members could march down the street and demand proof of his identity and, subsequently, his humanity. Neither of which Jake had. As far as he knew, the Huntsclan had no idea that dragons could turn into humans but were merely well aware that they were plenty of magical beings – such as wizards and oracles – that could look like humans.

"Hey!"

Jake turned and saw Spud striding toward him. He had grown a beard in the years that had passed and he looked lightyears older than he should and Jake wondered if he did too. If this conflict had aged them in ways that they shouldn't be already.

Spud pulled him into a one-armed hug. It had been a day of reunions for Jake and he thought of his parents, who still resided in the same house and thought of how easy it would be to visit and how complicated it would be if he were stopped on the way or if his parents were questioned later about unusual activity.

"I'm glad I heard from you," Spud said. "Listen, I want to … move in with you, if you know what I mean."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked. "We'd have to make you dead, you can't undo it."

"I'm sure. There's been more Clan members around my job recently. I know they think one of us is a spy or they know what Trix and I started and it's just a matter of time, especially if I'm about to go kidnap someone."

"Give us a few days. We have to make it look like an accident," Jake said. "I'll come get you by Friday, all right? Can you stay calm until then?"

Spud nodded.

"How's Trixie?" Jake asked. "What does she think?"

"She thinks I'm right which was nice for a change. She's fine, though. She's running _Dragon's Wings _on her own for the most part; doesn't really need my help at all. She said she'd miss me but that she didn't think we'd be separated long. She says she's hoping for a break in something soon."

"Okay. Are you good with _this _plan? To get the Huntsgirl?"

"Yeah," Spud said. "Why not? I've done worse things before and you're right here to rescue my ass if it doesn't. Got my paperwork?"

Jake handed over the false identities that Fu had manufactured for Spud and the Huntsgirl. Spud slid them into his wallet like they had been his all along and then he walked off to the psychiatric hospital. Jake watched him go, thinking over the aspects of the plan and trying to find something that would go wrong. Spud was going to walk in with the fake history of George Bidwell and his mentally ill sister, Rose. Their mother had just died and George wanted to bring his only remaining family home to care for her himself.

Jake could only hope that they bought it.

It was a long hour of prowling up and down the alleyway. He knew that Haley was inside; she would keep an eye on Spud, even if she dared not approach him. Jake sat down and then stood up. He wished that he smoked cigarettes, just for something to do with his hands. Finally, Spud came back. The Huntsgirl was in a wheelchair, her head slumped down.

"She's heavily sedated," Spud said. "Are you sure this is the Huntsgirl?"

"Can't you see the mark on her wrist?" Jake asked.

"No."

So, no one human could see the mark and Jake wondered what strange magic had made it so that the Huntsclan couldn't see the mark on the Huntsgirl.

"All good?"

"They didn't question it. I think they were glad to be rid of her – I heard a couple of nurses in the hall talking about it. Apparently, she's abusive and unstable."

"Thanks, Spud. I'll talk to Gramps about a plan for you and I'll come back for you, promise."

"Thanks. I gotta go home and shave – just so that I look different."

"Good plan."

Spud walked off and Jake looked down at the Huntsgirl. _Rose_. Was that really her name? Could he call her anything other than the Huntsgirl?

Jake didn't know but it didn't matter yet. He needed to get her into Magic Town's jail before the sedatives wore off. He hefted the Huntsgirl over his shoulders and abandoned the wheelchair, taking off through the streets as quickly as he could. He was sure that someone was going to notice something but either the humans were resisting in their own way by not reporting things to the Huntsclan or they were the same as they always were and weren't bothered by things outside of the own lives.

Fu met him inside the entrance to Magic Town. They wrapped the Huntsgirl in a blanket that he had waiting, hiding her mark and her face. It would do no good for anyone to think that she was alive and that she was being kept amongst them. Fu marched Jake through, apologizing on Jake's behalf that they were in a rush. Creatures parted for Fu the way that they didn't for Jake, which just confirmed what Jake had always known: the dog had more authority than he ever would.

The jail was not, surprisingly, a dismal place. The cells were quite large, the beds in them comfortable, with a few creature comforts, excepting, of course, of privacy. Jake settled the Huntsgirl into her new bed and Fu immediately set to doing up the restraints around her wrists and ankles.

"Have you done any research?" Jake asked. "The meds the hospital gave her won't last forever. They wrote Spud prescriptions for her but he wants to seek refuge here so he won't be able to pick up more than one."

"Spud's in trouble?"

"Seems it and I don't want to gamble with his life."

Fu nodded. "I'll make a plan with the old man and we'll go get him. As for her, it's going to take some trial and error but I think that we'll be able to get her to a good place. The trouble is that we're going to need her lucid and talking about what she knows and why she's not dead."

Jake nodded. "I'm going to sit with her a while."

"You need to sleep," Fu said.

"I know. Don't worry, Fu, I'll take care of myself."

Fu went upstairs to the main body of the house but Jake sat down outside the bars as a human. He knew that there were other things he needed to do to take care of himself and Spud but, instead, he just watched the Huntsgirl. She started moving hours after they had arrived: her eyelids flittered and her fingers began to feel at the comforter that Jake had covered her with. Knowing that she was restrained, Jake opened the door of the cell and went to her.

"What's your name?" he asked her, thinking it was an easy test of her alertness and lucidity.

Her eyes raked over him and she snorted a laugh. "I wasn't supposed to meet you again."

"What's your name?"

"Let me go, Dragon."

The casual use of the word shocked Jake. Haley had said that she thought the Huntsgirl knew things. Jake and the Huntsgirl had never met while he was in his human form. Perhaps it was like Haley said, perhaps she somehow knew, or perhaps the Huntsclan knew more than Jake had ever suspected. Neither were good options but Jake hoped that it was the first. At the very least, he knew that the Huntsgirl would never be walking out of here.

Before Jake could respond, the Huntsgirl erupted into giggles.

"He can't let me go but he will. Oh, he will!"

"No one's letting you go," Jake said. "What's your name?"

The Huntsgirl threw herself against her restraints but she didn't move.

"This isn't a human hospital," Jake said, "I think you know that. Come on, Huntsgirl, what's your real name?"

She erupted in a flurry of incoherent screaming, pulling at her bonds and trying to throw herself around, even though she couldn't go far. Jake knew that they weren't going to get any further and so he retreated again, closing the door of the cell behind him. The soundproofing was so powerful that she was muffled even though he was just on the other side of the bars.

"Come and kill me, you coward! You're going to have to anyway!"

And then she screamed again, like she was being tortured.

Jake sat and listened to her for a long time, making mental notes of what she said and did. A lot of it was incoherent strings of words, a lot of cursing about magical creatures and things that he was sure that she heard in the Huntsclan but nothing important. There was nothing about how the Clan worked – nothing useful at all, really.

"Kid, get some sleep. You patrol in six hours."

"I know, I know. I jut want a record of everything that she says. She's talkative so she might let something slip that she doesn't mean to. I also want to know why she knows things she shouldn't. And why humans can't see her Huntsmark anymore. Oh, and why she's not actually dead." Jake shrugged. "I don't like having this many questions."

"Well, if you had come upstairs at all, you would have been talking about it with Gramps and I. I think we have some answers. But, go give her this first." Fu pressed a small bottle of purple liquid into Jake's hands. "I think it will calm her but keep her awake. It might make her lucid. It might not. We'll tackle that later."

Jake opened the door of the cell again and the Huntsgirl snarled.

"I don't want your poison!" she cried.

"It's not poison. It's going to help you. You're going to be off your meds from the human psychiatric hospital and we don't know what's going to help you. We're trying our best."

"I'm going to get very sick," the Huntsgirl said clearly. "Let me die."

"I'm not going to let you die. I went through all of the trouble to get you here, didn't I?"

"It will be the easier death for me. For us," the Huntsgirl whispered urgently. "Trust me."

Jake had no intention of doing so. Still, he leant in to her. "What's your name, Huntsgirl?"

She studied his eyes, her own so deep and blue that Jake almost couldn't believe they were real. She relaxed down against the bed.

"My name is Rose Dawson and you're going to fall in love with me."

There was no hint of madness in her words but just because she could deliver them in a crystal-clear way did not mean that they were any less insane. He poured the liquid down her throat, clamping his hand over her mouth so that she had no choice but to swallow it all. She tried to bite him but he was faster than she was.

"I'll be back."

The Huntsgirl closed her eyes as if he weren't there at all. Jake supposed that he should let her have her peace and he went upstairs with Fu.

"Gramps asleep?"

"Yeah because he's got the brains," Fu said. "We think that the Huntsgirl has the gift of precognition."

"How? That's something you're born with and there's no way that she's had that for all of these years. It's a form of magic; the Huntsmaster would have killed her."

"Or used her," Fu said, "but, you're right. You fought the Huntsgirl for years and there was no evidence of precognition. We think it was Kara and Sara."

Jake turned away from Fu and took a deep breath, gripping the edge of their small counter. He had been there, when Kara and Sara had died and, supposedly, the Huntsgirl had died too. He hadn't been able to get to them soon enough – no one had, not even the Huntsclan warriors. Kara and Sara had taken their own lives rather than become pawns to the Huntsgirl and the resulting explosion had flattened the area around them, incinerating them in such a way that there had been nothing left to find. Not of Kara, not of Sara, not of the Huntsgirl. There had been no reason to think that anyone had survived.

"You think she managed to _steal _their gift?"

"Magic can work in strange ways, sometimes even independently of the body it's in. You know that, Jake."

"Right but why didn't she just die?"

"It's possible that she used magical enchantments to protect herself," Fu said. "She could have been studying it. It might explain why humans like Spud can't see the Huntsmark. She might have done that in order to protect herself. There are plenty of people who would kill a Clan member."

"But then why leave it so that magical creatures can see it?"

"Perhaps she's not powerful enough to do it."

Jake glanced at the floor where the trapdoor that led to the jail was.

"If she does possess any talent with magic, we'll have to put extra precautions on the jail. Even in her state, she could wreak havoc. Maybe even more so as she is."

"I have wizards coming soon to enchant the place. Don't worry – I didn't say why."

"Did you and Gramps come up with a plan for Spud?"

Fu nodded. "We'll get him on Thursday, barring any surprises. We'll coordinate later because, right now, you need to go to sleep."

Jake agreed and crawled off to his bed. Even though he was tired, having wasted a good amount of his sleeping time with the Huntsgirl. Even now, though, as tired as he was, his mind kept returning to her.

_My name is Rose Dawson and you're going to fall in love with me._

The thought unsettled Jake immensely even though he knew that the Huntsgirl was probably spewing complete nonsense. Most of what she said was nonsense: she had talked about plucking wings off faeries and about rice pudding and the headrests of car seats. There was a lot that made no sense but just enough that did that even Fu and Lao Shi thought that she had some sort of precognition.

But, she couldn't be right on two things.

Either he was going to fall in love with her or he was going to kill her.

Jake didn't know a lot. He was twenty-five years old and he had spent the last eight years in war times and had been fighting evil since before that. But he did know himself well enough that he would fight to the death for the people that he loved. He would do everything and anything to rescue his mother, father, Haley, Trixie, and Spud. He would rather lay his own life down and surrender, knowing that they could go on. If he loved someone, he wouldn't kill them. He knew that he couldn't. It was some comfort, then, at least, to know that she wasn't always right. If It was true that the Oracle Twins had given their gifts to her, though, then Jake wasn't sure how he felt. Kara and Sara were always right – although their visions were often misinterpreted – they were _right. _If the Huntsgirl wasn't right all of the time, then that would mean that he couldn't trust her, at all.

Not that he would ever fall in love with his greatest enemy, either, but it was a comfort to know that she could be wrong.

**Forgot to mention this last week but this story will be updated every Thursday (to the best of my ability)! I hope that you liked this chapter too and I'll see you again next week!**

**Don't forget to check me out on tumblr we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	3. Live Or Die

Jake woke as the sun was going down, feeling worse off than when he'd gone to bed. He stumbled into the cramped kitchen, picking up the potion Fu had left him. He took it like a shot of cheap vodka – not that he had much experience with it. He'd barely had time to play and party with his dragon training and duties and then the world had ended.

He glanced at the note left by Fu, even though it was the same thing as always. Gramps patrolled early in the night while Fu was out with teams of magic creatures to steal supplies that they needed. Jake went out later with the army teams as they attacked the Huntsclan's warehouses, headquarters, and hunted Clan members the way that they themselves were hunted.

Jake gathered food and water and went to visit their prisoner. He called out to let her know of his approach but received no response. When he got to the cell, he dropped everything he was holding and rushed inside.

She had warned him that she was going to get sick but she hadn't even begun to prepare him for the how awful it was going to be. She was throwing up everywhere, going into shaking fits, and was boiling up. She was completely unaware of his presence as he touched her forehead. Jake wished that Fu was home – he was the healer, after all. But, he couldn't call Gramps and Fu in from a mission for the community for one person, especially not this person.

And he was more knowledgeable than he used to be.

Jake closed the door to the cell behind him, making sure that it latched. It didn't appear to be a ruse but he knew how cunning the Huntsgirl was. She was not above getting her hands dirty and pulling out any trick that she needed to. She wasn't in any condition to fight him and there was no way to avoid him in such a small space. She could try to open the cell door all she wanted but it would only open to someone with dragon blood. Not even Fu could open get to her without an escort.

Still, Jake knew that she was deadly and he was cautious as he undid her binds. Her eyelids fluttered but she didn't fight him or try to run. She didn't seem to know he was there at all. Jake carried her over to the small, open bathroom area of the cell. He held her and turned on the shower, letting the water heat while he looked at her. It wouldn't help at all to wash her clothes while they were on her but it felt like her violation to undress her when she wasn't aware of what was going on.

_You're not doing this for you, Jake, _he reminded himself, _you're doing this for her._

It still felt wrong and Jake wished there was some way to close his eyes and clean her properly, just to preserve her privacy. It was ironic that he had argued to kidnap her, medicate her, and keep her strapped down for the majority of her day and he was worried about her modesty, her humanity.

It was the difference between them and the Huntsclan. Even though they were humans themselves they were blinded by their ideology. They had never stopped to think that magical creatures had their own societies, families, and ideologies.

Thinking about the morality of the war helped Jake take his mind off what he was doing. He piled the Huntsgirl's dirty clothes on the floor and propped her up in the shower. There wasn't room to put her on the floor and Jake was getting soaked along with her as he cleaned her body and soaped the sick from her hair. She only spoke once, mumbling, "Don't let me drown."

"You're not going to drown in a shower like this."

Her head lolled forward and Jake quickly supported her head, like his mother had told him when baby Haley had come home from the hospital. Now, she was all grown up and chopped off the pigtails that Jake still pictured her with. He wished he'd had more time to see Haley yesterday. He didn't even know why she'd been in that hospital in the first place.

It made him feel even worse to know that the Huntsclan would feel nothing if they could feel the full extent of the misery they had caused.

"But here I am, taking care of you."

As Jake shut the water off, he realized he hadn't thought of a towel or a change of clothes. He guided the Huntsgirl back to the bed and covered her in the barely soiled bottom sheet and restrained her so that she was laying on her side. He didn't bring her here so she could die in a day, alone and choking on her own vomit.

He went upstairs and gathered towels, warm blankets, and clothing. He also took one of Fu's books with him. He didn't want to give her the wrong thing and make her even worse.

He dried her off, taking extra care with her long, soaked hair. It would be so much easier if she just didn't have it.

"I like my hair," she said into the pillow.

Jake nearly dropped the towel. "Don't tell me you can read minds now."

"You want my secrets," she said but it came out so weakly that there was no hint of the accusing bite that she surely meant it with.

"Why else would I have brought you here?" he asked. "Come on, sit up. Let's get you dressed."

The Huntsgirl was like a ragdoll as Jake fit her into the large, shapeless clothes that read '_PRISONER' _on the front and '_HIGHLY DANGEROUS' _on the back. Not that she seemed dangerous now: sick, skinny, and covered in healed burns. He forced himself to look at the mark on her wrist and palm. He could never forget who he was dealing with. She had done the Huntsmaster's work, bloodying herself so that he could keep his hands clean. Two years into the takeover, she had wounded him so grievously that Gramps and Fu hadn't believed he'd live and he still bore angry scars. She'd kill him if given the opportunity. At least, she would have before Kara and Sara and he had to operate like she still would.

"I don't know what you're thinking now."

"I'm thinking as warm as I can make you and you're still shivering."

"What happened to dragon's fire?"

"Sarcasm doesn't look good on the weak. Besides, according to you, I'm going to kill you, so I'd play nice if I were you."

"Not like this. I don't think."

"So, you're not all knowing?"

"That's a secret."

But she had already tipped her hand. The Huntsgirl was nowhere as near as guarded as she used to be and Jake had known her when they were teenagers and involved in verbal sparring as much as physical. He had always known they were the same age but it was different when she was just the brutality behind the mask.

She shivered violently and Jake tucked the blanket up around her and settled in the corner of the cell, keeping an eye on her as he read Fu's book.

Jake was trying to decide between a potion specific to fevers or a more targeted healing potion. She didn't fit all the symptoms but she fit enough and so perhaps that one _was _better. That was when he heard a sound like bells. His head shot up. He knew it wasn't his phone and it didn't sound like any of the chimes that accompanied various magical creatures.

There were bubbles floating around the Huntsgirl's head, letting out bell sounds every time they bounced off one another, although not a single one popped.

Jake dropped the book and shuffled closer. The Huntsclan, as a rule, didn't use magic but Jake suspected that they would do anything to get ahead.

The moment that Jake got close, the Huntsgirl woke with a start, thrashing against her bonds. The moment her eyes opened, the bubbles vanished.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I _forgot_," the Huntsgirl snapped and Jake realized that they weren't talking of the same thing as she continued to pull violently against her restraints. "You'd think I'd be used to it but I'm not meant to live like this!"

She let out a desperate cry that turned into a coughing fit that didn't end.

Jake gathered the book and went to concoct the healing potion. If there was going to be any explanation, he would have to get her better. If he got any explanation – and if any part of it was the truth.

He glanced at the time as he began to prepare the ingredients. It was getting late in the evening. Gramps should be home by one and Jake was set to fly out a two.

He missed the time when he wasn't nocturnal but it seemed it was always like that. The little things got to him more than the big things. The big things hit harder but it was easy to not count the days since it had seen his family or hung out with his friends. It was easy to get lost in the routine but the routine would remind him of happier times.

Jake was relieved when the potion was finished because the Huntsgirl was, at the very least, a distraction. She had gotten sick again while he was gone, most of it ending up on the floor.

"Don't leave me," the Huntsgirl begged when he came back. "_Please_."

"Drink this," Jake said, "it'll help you."

She sniffed at the cup he offered.

"It's not poison but it might feel like it."

She drank it all without complaint.

"Tell me about the bubbles," Jake said as he moved her restraints along the bed, sitting her up so that he could clean up the spot along the bed and floor where she'd thrown up.

"What bubbles?" she asked. "Oh, what was in that? I feel like my blood is fizzing. Oh, is my tongue supposed to do that?"

There was something comical about the bane of the magical community, sticking her tongue out in an attempt to see what was going on with it.

"Probably. You know what magic is like."

"No, I don't," she said. "I died but didn't and then things started happening around me and I started being able to see things but I'm from the _Huntsclan_. We don't use magic. At least, we're not _supposed_ to. I don't know what would happen to me if they knew that I could do now."

She dug her fingernails of her marked hand so deeply into her palm that she began to bleed.

Jake pulled her fingers out of her palm. "I have enough to do, Huntsgirl. Don't hurt yourself on purpose."

"Why ask me for my name if you aren't going to use it?"

"Tell me about the bubbles."

"It's Rose. I remember telling you that."

"Rose," Jake said but it felt too human for the things that he knew she had done, "tell me about the bubbles."

"Things happen around me," Rose said and she jangled her restraints. "I hid myself in the hospital. Master would kill me … I let myself become corrupted."

"You _let _yourself?" Jake asked. "What happened to you?"

The Huntsgirl stared at him blankly and then she laughed. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no-"

She sat and babbled the same word over and over while Jake finished cleaning. He checked the time on his phone and he knew that he needed to go and prepare for Gramps' arrival.

"I'll have them bring you down food, okay? Try and eat something."

"-no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-"

Jake reached for her restraint, undoing one of her arm ones to lay her back down on the bed. More quickly than he could see, her hand snapped from her side and she was holding onto his forearm with an iron grip. He went to pull back but she dragged him in closer, her eyes boring into his.

"Don't take flight. _Don't leave me_."

Jake wanted to peel her fingers from his arm, he wanted to escape the intensity in her eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to move.

"Huntsgirl, I'll come see you when I get back in the morning," he promised.

She still wouldn't let go.

"Rose," Jake said, "let go now. I'll come back."

It didn't seem to placate her, really, but Jake was able to get her fingers free from his arm. He strapped her down again and she had already forgotten about the moment and was repeating to herself, over and over again, "no, no, no, no," low under her breath, a far away look in her eyes.

Jake didn't know what to think about her anymore. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since bringing the Huntsgirl into Magic Town and Jake felt completely baffled. He closed the cell door behind him and made sure it was locked. She wasn't the same Huntsgirl they had believed died a year ago but he still didn't trust her, broken and incomprehensible as she was now. Jake wondered what had truly happened during Kara's and Sara's suicide. He fingered the amulet around his neck, lost in thought, and then the gong rang out across town, signifying the return of the raiding teams. Jake transformed and headed into the town square.

The raiding team was mostly unscathed, as was typical. There were unicorns carrying full saddlebags, ridden by armed leprechauns. Gramps was hovering above them all as trolls, tall and strong enough, rushed forward to unburden his claws of the large supplies that he had managed to seize.

Jake swooped in. "Everything as expected?"

"Take Fu. He has news."

Jake angled himself so that Fu could clamber onto his back and then he left Gramps to organize the supplies as Fu recounted the night. Most of it was normal: where the Clan was patrolling, where Dragon's Wings were operating that night, and if there were any rebellious humans out and about, disobeying the Huntsclan's strict curfew. That had happened a lot in the early days, until the large-scale battles had begun happening between the Clan and magical creatures throughout the night. Most humans stayed in, excepting for those in Dragon's Wings; the anti-Clan gang that worked in secret, aiding magical creatures in any way they could. It was Trixie and Spud that had started it after Jake and Gramps had gone to Magic Town.

"There's a ship in the harbour," Fu said. "We think it's a weapons delivery. No matter what it is – it's definitely theirs."

"So, I'll destroy it tonight, before they can unload it."

"They'll anticipate it, kid."

"I'll be careful, Fu."

Fu snorted. Not that Jake could blame him for it. Jake always _tried _to be careful but they were not enemies to underestimated and they inevitably ended up outnumbering him.

Jake settled in front of the house. "By the way, Fu, do you know anything about magic bubbles?"

"_Bubbles_?"

Jake told Fu about the Huntsgirl's illness and the bubbles that he had seen about her head earlier. Fu slid from Jake's back and began to pace in front of the house door.

"It's not unusual for witches and wizards of a very young age to procure things like that," Fu said, "but if she had absorbed the twins' powers …"

"They weren't witches. They were oracles."

"It's possible that the Huntsgirl has always had some magical ability," Fu said. "An ancestor, perhaps. She might not have even known – it's why some people think they have good luck finding quarters or getting a taxi. Kara and Sara's powers could have enhanced it. Or, it could have been why she didn't die."

"Maybe," Jake said. It wasn't a bad theory – it made more sense than anything else did – but Jake didn't know if he believed it. Why would the Huntsclan mark someone who had any knack with magic?

"I'll go in with Gramps and take a look at her while you're out tonight," Fu said.

"Thanks."

Gramps lumbered over to the two of them. "Jake, you'll have to go alone tonight."

"I know."

"Then, go."

Jake slithered out from one of the far exits of Magic Town. There were no Clan members around and Jake had paused to listen very carefully. He launched himself into the air, hiding himself high in the sky, keeping into the clouds as much as he possibly could. He could see the large cargo ship on the water and he was relieved that it was so far from shore. He would be able to keep the damage to a minimum. That was thing that nagged the most on his conscience. He had made peace with what he did to members of the Huntsclan – they had declared war first and had to suffer the consequences – but it was the innocent people who were already labouring under the Huntsclan's rule that didn't deserve the destruction that Jake knew dragons often brought.

He readied the fire in his belly and positioned himself above the ship. He dove as silently as possible and then, when he was within range, let the fire go. The deck of the ship began to light immediately. He could see people on the deck, readying weapons to fire back. Jake got closer, letting loose more flames and aiming for the weapons. He had missed one – at least one – and he knew it when something pierced his right wing. He spiralled, trying to get the torn wing to still do its job and another arrow went flying past his head.

Enraged, Jake landed on the deck of the ship, sweeping his tail and sending several people into the water. He dug his claws into the deck, hearing it screech under his weight. He roared at the few Clan members that were still willing to face him. He leapt at them and they stood their ground. Jake breathed more fire and then he went down to the below decks. It would all be destroyed but it would be beneficial to know what the ship was carrying.

In the storage area, Jake found ammunition – ammunition that was slowly being heated by his own fire.

Jake knew was about to happen and he knew that he had to get out of there. He backed toward the staircase but he could hear Clan members coming down. He could fight them off – but would he have enough time?

_Don't take flight. Don't leave me._

The Huntsgirl's desperate words came back to him and Jake glanced over at the side of the ship. The metal was strong but Jake knew that he was stronger. He could rip through the metal of a ship. The risk was: once he was in the water, he would not be able to get himself back up. He would have to swim to shore and launch from dry land in order to get to the air. He could get caught in the sinking ship. It would be safer for him to get to the deck, even with his injured wing.

Jake didn't have time to decide.

He launched himself at the side of the ship, digging his sharp claws in hard. The ship gave way with terrible screeching sounds and sea water began to flood inward. He forced himself to keep going until he had a hole large enough for him. Jake took a deep breath and entered the water.

It was dark and cold. He had no underwater vision, no way to breathe, and no way to know which way was up and which way was down. He had to keep swimming. He knew which way the sinking ship was and he had to get away. When his lungs were bursting and Jake's arms and legs felt like they were about to give out, Jake finally broke the surface. He hardly dared to stick his head up too far above the water, lest Huntsclan spies be around. He breathed in the salty air and made himself keep going. It was hard to hear anything above the roar of the waves but he kept listening for Huntsclan helicopters heading toward the wreckage but Jake, at the very least, knew that they wouldn't be able to salvage anything.

The sun was rising by the time that Jake's feet touched the beach. He didn't give himself any time to rest. He needed to get back to Magic Town before the humans started heading out for work. There was contention among them about whether the Huntsclan was in the right or not about trying to protect them from magical creatures, even if they were going about it the wrong way.

He fled toward Magic Town but he ran into another group of Huntsclan warriors. As one, their spears came up toward them. Jake roared, making the buildings around him tremble. Sometimes, it was enough to make the younger members break off and run, but all of them held firm.

"This is your one chance. I will do what I need to in order to get through you."

Jake always felt worse if he didn't try to give them a chance to run.

The one at the front jabbed the spear at him. Jake seized it in his jaws and snapped it in half, spitting out the wood back at her. He slammed his tail down and reached out with his claws, catching the one in the front and throwing them into their companions. Two broke off to care for their fallen members but the others stuck together, advancing as one unit with their sharpened spears like one weapon. But, Jake had torn a ship apart tonight and they didn't scare him. Tired as he was, they didn't scare him.

Jake spat fire at them and swiped at the spear. He grabbed one in his hand and turned it on the other member, forcing it through the very Clan member who had been wielding it only a moment before. He knew that he had just killed and the moment after taking a life hadn't yet gotten easier on him and he hoped that it never did. If he ever forgot what he was doing, if the lives he had taken ever stopped weighing on him, he would be as bad as the people that he was fighting against.

But he didn't stop until they were dead. They were close to the entrance of Magic Town and there would always be more of them. It was an awful thing to think and as Jake made his way home, he reminded himself that they were individuals. Just because there was another mask ready to take their place, there was no replacement to the person under the mask.

Magic Town was barely waking up as Jake walked home and he was glad that no one could see his wounded wing. He didn't want anyone to think that he was a weak, at all, even if he had been out in battle. He remembered how they had worried over him, after his near-fatal encounter with the Huntsgirl, when he had returned to duty. He didn't want them to worry that he couldn't protect their safety.

The minute he was inside, though, he let himself feel the pain and he cried out for Fu. He wanted nothing more than to fall back into a human and crawl into bed but his wing wouldn't heal properly if he didn't let Fu handle it first.

"Kid, where have you been?! The old man almost went looking for you."

"Had to take the long way home but I got everything done. It's my wing."

Fu pulled Jake's wing down and stared at the hole.

"I'm going to have to stitch it."

"Make it quick," Jake said, already dreading the moment that the needle would pierce his sensitive wing.

Fu made him drink another round of health potion and attempted to numb the wing but Jake knew that it wouldn't help. He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his eye off the needle. As soon as Fu touched him, his wing jerked in anticipation and Fu growled.

"Kid, I'm helping you here."

"Sorry."

Jake watched the minutes on the click tick by. It didn't take that long, really, for Fu to stitch the hole in his wing closed and then cleaned the wounds but every time that Fu had to physically stitch him up, it always felt worse than whatever the original wound was.

"All right, you're in the clear."

Jake transformed back into a human, weaving on his feet.

"To bed," Fu ordered. "Gramps wants to meet with you at six to discuss the shipment."

"How's the Huntsgirl?" Jake asked. "Is she any better?"

"Her fever is down but she's still throwing up everything I try to give her – food or water, it doesn't matter. And, as you said, she's out of it. She also keeps calling me 'Fluffy Fido' and I'm going to bite her hand for that."

Jake patted the top of his head. "You're such a good dog."

"I'll bite you too," Fu threatened.

"I'm going to go check on her before I go to bed."

Jake headed down the stairs. The Huntsgirl was awake; the moment she saw him at the cell bars, she started trying to sit up.

"You swam!" she cried out.

Jake opened the bars. "You didn't tell me to swim. You told me not to fly."

"That was all I had to tell you at the time," she said, almost defensively. "Sometimes, there are things that I have to say and I don't know what they mean or how they'll end up … They come out. Like bubbles. And flowers. I made flowers grow in my cuffs at the hospital."

"Why can you do these things?"

She didn't look at him.

"And you got injured!"

"How do you know that?"

"I'm glad you came back."

"Was I not going to come back?" Jake asked.

The Huntsgirl stared at him. "I was surprised to find out the dragons could also be people. Very surprised. It doesn't seem possible that you can have two faces. Two faced dragons." She laughed. "As if that isn't everything I believe."

"Believe or believed?"

"I am the Clan. The Clan is me," she chanted, almost mechanically, and Jake could picture the young Clan members in a classroom, saying that every morning as a strange pledge of allegiance. "I wish you weren't real."

"What does that mean?"

The Huntsgirl pulled at her restraints. "Can I get out?"

"No. You're in there for my safety and yours. I saw your hospital files. You put nurses in the hospital."

She was wide-eyed and innocent. "They couldn't fight back. You can."

"And that's why we're keeping you restrained. I have to get some sleep; I just didn't want to tell you I was coming to visit you and then not."

Jake was halfway out the door when her voice called him back.

"You never told me _your _name, you know."

"Are we trading information now?"

"Just the fun stuff," the Huntsgirl said.

Jake was intrigued and went to sit next to the cell bed.

"My name is Jake."

She smiled, almost smug. "I'm Rose."

"I know," Jake said. "We already talked about that. Tell me something else about you."

"I've never known anyone named Jake before," she said, "but … we didn't get names. I named myself. When I was little. They were my favourite flower."

"You're the Huntsgirl."

"I was." The Huntsgirl shook her wrists and the restraints rattled. "I'm not much of anything now. I laid in a hospital bed for a year. They took my mark."

"Who took your mark?" Jake asked and his eyes were once again drawn to her wrist.

If regular humans couldn't see it, did that mean that the Huntsgirl herself could no longer see the brand on her arm?

She wailed loudly.

"No! No! I don't want to! Please, _please!"_

"Huntsgirl!"

But, there was no use. She was lost to him again, screaming and crying, with large fat tears rolling down her face. Jake couldn't get through to her and he went to Fu, who gave her sleeping medication.

"Go to bed," Fu ordered.

"She has information," Jake said, feeling like he had to defend why he had brought the Huntsgirl here all over again. "I just don't know how to get through to her."

"We'll be able to get through to her when I find the right potion that will help her. Come on, you and Gramps need to talk about Spud later too and you're definitely going to want to be awake for that."

Jake tucked himself into bed, his dreams filled with strange shapes and visions and the Huntsgirl's voice coming to him over and over again: _Don't leave me_; _you're going to fall in love with me; don't leave me._

**Little bit of a longer chapter, but we had a lot of things to cover! Hope you enjoyed reading – please let me know if you did!**

**Don't forget to check me out on tumblr we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	4. Drive By

"Any advice?"

"Butterscotch pudding is not real pudding."

Jake glanced over at the Huntsgirl. She was more lucid now, Fu having found something that seemed to be helping her. She wasn't great – she still had fits that left her screaming and talking to imaginary people – but she was better. There seemed to be nothing that Fu could do for the precognition but it had already saved Jake's life once so he wasn't inclined to get rid of it. Even if she kept saying things that unsettled him. Even if the things that she had _already_ said unsettled him.

"I like butterscotch. And, we don't have a lot, you know, since the Huntsclan is hunting us to extinction."

She didn't react; she tended to ignore the cheap shots but Jake couldn't stop making them.

"No, but, seriously, any advice," Jake asked, trying for the last time before he had to leave.

"I _hate _Chatty Cathys. Hey, do you know who came up with that? I kind of like the term. It sounds like something a mom would say but I didn't have a mom. I had a Hunts-Nanny."

"Well, if I die today, I'll remember that."

"Jake?"

"What?"

"You don't die before I do. Otherwise, this whole thing is pointless."

Jake crouched next to the bed. She had been given slightly longer restraints so that she could sit up and move a little bit and wasn't anchored into a lying position.

"I'm not immortal until you die, am I? Because, otherwise, I'm just going to keep you under lock and key for all of eternity and infiltrate the Huntsclan Headquarters, take the world back, and then see how many bottles of tequila a dragon can drink."

"You should still be very careful," the Huntsgirl said. "Nothing can save you from a good shot to the ear. Nothing lasts forever."

"All right. Well, I'll see you when I get back."

"Can you bring your friend?" she asked. "I'd like to meet something called a Spud."

"If he's willing to get anywhere near you," Jake said. "He'll make up his own mind about things."

"Free will is so funny."

Jake desperately wished he had time to ask her what she meant about _that _but he had to go and get Spud.

"I'll be back."

"_Probably_."

"Not helping."

"Not really trying to. Look, I made bubbles!"

There were two chiming bubbles floating in front of her face.

"Have fun with those."

Jake left her alone with the bubbles and made sure that Fu knew that she had managed to create them so that Fu could keep an eye on them. So far, the bubbles hadn't done anything but make bell sounds but there was always the chance that they weren't innocent.

With Fu guarding the Huntsgirl, Jake and Gramps left Magic Town. The Huntsclan were patrolling in the area that Spud lived in tonight, either by accident or because they really did know who he was. It was the perfect opportunity because it would look like whatever damage the dragons did was just a casualty of the destruction that they were trying to reap on the Huntsclan.

Their flight path took them over the Long house and Jake forced himself not to look down on it. Whenever he ended up in the area he had grown up in, where he knew Haley still lived with their parents and had grown up without him, he felt his willpower crumble. He knew that being in Magic Town and not with his family was the necessary decision – the right decision – but there had been many a time during the past several years when all Jake had wanted to do was run home and be held by his mother. With every year that passed, Jake realized more and more how much he'd taken his mother's presence for granted. With painful clarity, he remembered every time he had pushed her away when she had fussed about dragon injuries, every time he had blown off a simple chore that would have made her life easier, every time it was too embarrassing to let her kiss him goodbye even though they were in the privacy of their own home. If Jake ever saw her again, Jake fully intended to curl up in her lap and not move for several days.

"There's the patrol unit," Gramps said.

He and Jake circled in the sky until the unit was close enough to Spud's house that it wouldn't be suspicious. Then, they plummeted down. Jake roared as they went and Spud darted into the backyard at the signal. Gramps' fire lit the night as he torched the lawn of the house and, then, the house itself. The Clan members leapt into action, turning themselves back to back so that there was always someone facing a dragon. Jake took the post in front of Spud's house while Gramps landed on the opposite sidewalk.

The battle was short but intense – just as they had planned for it to be. They couldn't afford for Clan reinforcements to arrive.

Spud played his part perfectly. Gramps had not so accidentally set Spud's house on fire. Spud had rushed to the front yard, snatching up the amulet Fu had enchanted with an invisibility charm. He had slipped it over his head just as it appeared Jake had thrown him back into his burning house. Once Jake felt the weight of Spud settle securely between his wings, he clawed at the ground three times to signal to Gramps.

It almost went off without a hitch but before they could unfurl their wings, masked figures poured in. _More Clan members. _Jake wanted to leap and dive, throw himself into the fray as he normally did, but if he dislodged Spud now, they would lose him for good or he would be killed. Jake let Gramps take the offensive, making sure that no Clan member got close enough to the burning house to try and rescue the human they thought was trapped inside.

A cacophony of voices split the air and another group of robed figures plunged onto the scene. But, they weren't wearing the dark masks of the Huntsclan, instead they were wearing the red and blue of Dragon's Wings. Between the two dozen new arrivals and two dragons, the Huntsclan began a slow retreat.

Jake was torn between heading to Gramps or pursuing the Clan when one of the Dragon's Wings members landed at his feet.

"Go! Take care of Spud! We've got this!"

_Trixie_.

It was the closest that he'd been to her in eight years and all he wanted to do was reach out, say hello or take her along with Spud. He wanted to know how her life truly was but the Huntsgirl had said that she hated Chatty Cathys and he was here for Spud. And, Trixie was already gone, running after the Huntsclan. Jake took off into the night, heading one way while Gramps headed in the other. They had to make sure the Huntsclan wasn't going to follow Jake.

"Hold on," Jake warned Spud. "It's about to get cold."

"You're hard to hold onto," Spud complained.

Jake ducked into the cloud cover, hearing Spud's teeth begin to chatter. He pushed himself as fast he could and he was completely out of breath by the time he and Spud arrived at town. It wasn't a moment too soon, either. Invisibility charms weren't long-lived and Spud was already reappearing in patches.

"Oh, wow, that was awful. I'm going to throw up."

"Try not to," Jake said. "Can you walk all right?"

"That was the rollercoaster ride from hell," Spud said, hefting his messenger bag over his shoulder and walking on unsteady legs. "I've never wanted to ride you, man, and now I know why."

"Please, don't phrase it like riding me."

"But that's what it was!"

For the first time in what felt like forever, Jake felt his age. For that short walk to the house, Jake didn't feel the aches and pains. He wasn't worried about what would happen when he had to rejoin the battle. And he could tell that Spud felt the same.

"All right, this is it. You'll be sleeping in the living room but everywhere else in town is full."

"I don't care," Spud said earnestly. "I can fall asleep without wondering if I'm going to wake up in the morning and that's more than enough for me."

"The Huntsgirl's downstairs," Jake said, "so we could all wake up with our throats slit."

"She's _where_?"

"Spud!"

"Hey, Fu!"

They high-fived exuberantly.

"Kid, Gramps says not to go back out tonight. Both of you at once flooded the streets. He's on his way back."

Which only made Jake want to leave immediately. His grandfather wasn't as young or as fast as he used to be. But Gramps had given his orders and Jake was expected to obey. They both knew what the price of their duty was and Jake lived in fear of the day that one of them was asked to pay it.

"He also said he doesn't care if you don't like it."

Jake sighed. "He knows me too well."

Spud slid the amulet over his head. "Thanks for the magic touch, Fu."

Fu waved him off. "It's enchanted like the dragons' amulets for protection. Keep it on you."

"Thanks."

"How's the, uh, prisoner, Fu?" Jake asked.

"Still pretty lucid. She was playing with the bubbles when I went down to check on her. Although, she did guess my age right so we're never going to be friends."

"Excepting all of the other reasons that you'll never be friends with someone in the Huntsclan," Spud said.

"That's true. I'm going to go see Veronica and wait for the old man. You two settle in."

Once Fu was gone, Spud asked, "So, it _was _the Huntsgirl? How's that going?"

"She knows things she shouldn't and she's just odd. She's showing some evidence of magic powers too which I don't like at all. She's just weird, Spud, not like the Huntsgirl was." Jake shrugged, unable to distill what the Huntsgirl was like now. It was only something to be experienced. "She said she wanted to meet you."

Spud raised his eyebrows. "Did you _tell _her about me?"

"She asked about you and then I told her about you." Jake waved his hand dismissively. "It's weird, I told you."

"Okay, let's go meet your pet Clan member."

"She's not a pet," Jake said.

"Sure she is. It's like you're keeping an Inland Taipan in a cage but, whatever, I'm a little curious about what she's like awake."

"Like I said, she's nothing like she used to be," Jake said, opening the door to the jail. "She hasn't tried to kill me _once_."

"That's suspicious."

"Tell me about it."

The Huntsgirl was sitting primly on her bed, amusing herself by creating bubbles – bubbles that were now routinely changing colour. Jake decided that he had to get Fu to make her potions more potent – the way she was exerting her powers now made him nervous.

"Hi, Jake," she said brightly, the bubbles popping loudly. "Kill any of my family members tonight?"

"Sadly, no, there's always tomorrow night."

"For some," she said, "but, let's forget about that. I'm so glad you brought Spud! I feel like it's been so long since I've seen a real human."

She said _human _in a revered tone and Jake resisted the urge to ask her why the Clan had spilled so much human blood and caused so much human misery in their takeover but he knew it wouldn't help.

Jake opened the door of the cell and Spud slowly followed him in.

"Oh, I remember you," the Huntsgirl said. "You used to have so much hair! And parents. Sorry about that."

Jake angled himself between Spud and the Huntsgirl. The days of Spud being a lover, not a fighter, had been over the day his parents had been killed in an attempt to flee the city and the Huntsclan's rule. It had been on day one of the takeover, long before anyone realized that it wasn't limited to New York.

"Did you kill my parents!? Jake, did she kill my parents!?"

The Huntsgirl shook her head. "No. I was too important to ever be a Huntsguard. And, look at me now."

"I think it's karmic justice, personally," Jake said.

"Shush. You shouldn't be so rude to someone you love. Should you, Spud?"

"_Love_?" Spud repeated and Jake could feel Spud staring at him.

"She thinks I'm going to fall in love with her," Jake said, as sarcastically as he possibly could, "and then kill her. Or vice versa. She's not really clear."

"Oh, no, you're going to fall in love with me first."

Spud laughed. "Why … What would make you fall in love with the Huntsgirl?"

"My name's Rose," she chirped as Jake said, "She won't tell me. There's no fun in that."

She tossed her hair. "I don't know everything all at once – you know that. But, I haven't been wrong yet, have I?"

She hadn't but Jake wasn't about to tell her that. He didn't want to admit to Spud, either, that the Huntsgirl's words had influenced any of his actions. It was a dangerous game to keep the Huntsgirl in mind. Jake doubted that he could explain to anyone else how completely she could get stuck in his head. He knew how insane it sounded and Gramps, Fu, and Spud would all be in the right to tell him to stay the hell away from her. Gramps would be just as able as Jake was in finding out the Huntsclan's secrets but Jake wanted to do it. He had brought her here and she was his responsibility – he brought her food and changes of clothing and her twice daily medications.

"But, he doesn't love me yet." The Huntsgirl leant forward, resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her face in her hands. "Tell me about love, Spud, you know more than either of us do."

"What have you been doing?" Jake asked.

"Who," the Huntsgirl said. "It's not very best friend of him to not tell you he's engaged."

Spud turned on his heel and left. Jake almost went after him but then turned to take in the Huntsgirl.

"Just because you know things doesn't mean that you have to say them, you know. I haven't seen Spud in eight years except to rescue you. Of course there are things that I don't know about him."

The Huntsgirl's eyes blazed. "Rescue me!?" She laughed. "Don't delude yourself for one second, Jacob Long. You brought me here for you and when this is all over and we understand what the future is, know that I asked for _none _of this. You will be my destruction and I will be yours but I won't even be able to take any pleasure from it."

She turned away from him and Jake stormed away from her. He found Spud in the living room, seated upon the couch that was to be his bed. Jake lowered himself down next to Spud.

"Don't let her get to you. She's crazy but she still clearly knows how to be cruel."

"It's Trixie," Spud said. "Who I'm engaged to. We wanted to tell you when we could all be together again. And we definitely didn't want to actually do anything official until you could be there. And, you know, we didn't want the Huntsclan to have to give us a marriage licence."

"I'm a little surprised you haven't killed each other," Jake admitted and Spud let out a laugh, "but I am happy for you. You could have told me – you didn't have to wait."

Spud laughed again. "Yeah, that'd be a good P.S. for a Dragon's Wings report."

"All right, I see your point."

"And, we miss you, man. I just wish things could be normal again but even if the Huntsclan all vanished tomorrow, we wouldn't get to go back. We wouldn't be returned what this has cost us."

"And magical creatures are known about now, for sure. I don't know what a non-Huntsclan government is going to do about that but I have to believe that we won't be killed in cold blood and that's enough for me," Jake said and then he sighed. "I have to get her to talk. I know she hasn't been inside the Clan for a year but she was the right hand. She has to know things that can help us."

"It seems like she's torturing you, not the other way around. 'Fall in love with me' 'kill me'! How much more dramatic and in your head could she try to be?"

"Of course, I'm going to have to kill her," Jake said. "I couldn't just ever let her go."

The frankness with which he talked about taking someone's life horrified Jake. He'd killed and he would kill again but the reasons why he'd taken a life didn't quite seem to matter. The Huntsgirl wouldn't be allowed to ever walk free and she was too dangerous to keep behind bars indefinitely. It needn't be a bloody affair but it would have to happen.

"It's the falling in love angle that I don't get. What's she trying to gain from that?"

Jake shrugged. "Who knows? But, is Trixie really all right with you coming here?"

"She agreed it was necessary. Publicly, we're together and any suspicion on me would lead back to her. It's not going to be easy but I think she's right. This war won't last forever and now that you have the Huntsgirl, something has to change."

"Yeah, it does. Gramps can't keep this up forever and I can't do it by myself. All of the others are fighting in their own countries which leaves Haley and I'll be damned before I let her go through this side of it."

Jake couldn't bear to see his little sister actively fighting in a war. Haley was capable and Jake would never say she wasn't but Haley had always had bigger dreams and the ability to achieve them. The duty and burden of being the American Dragon had and always would be his.

"She's doing great," Spud said. "I saw her last week. She says your parents are doing well too but that they miss you."

"I miss them too."

Spud yawned obnoxiously.

"I'll let you sleep – we're all nocturnal, though but we're mostly out so we probably won't wake you up too much. Tomorrow, I'll take you over to Veronica's – she can always use the help around her stall."

"Good; I'm not used to feeling useless."

"How times have changed," Jake joked.

"I would love to just sit on my couch and smoke a joint and not care anymore but here we are."

"Someday, Spud, you can smoke weed again."

"I'll hold you to that."

Jake left Spud to his own devices as Gramps came storming back through the door.

"I hate those little arrows." He shook his tail and blood spattered the floor. "Where is Fu Dog?"

"He went to wait for you at Veronica's."

With an aggravated grunt, Gramps turned back around and went to find Fu.

Left alone and with no chance of having anything else to do tonight, Jake decided to return to the prison and confront the Huntsgirl again.

**Sorry I'm a little late but I ended up having to work tonight! Also, I'm headed home for Christmas and switching time zones, so the next couple of chapters should come out a little earlier (if I can keep my stuff together!). Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	5. Try Tonight

The Huntsgirl seemed honestly surprised to see him.

"Have you forgiven me already?"

"No. You've done too much to forgive you for anything." Jake let himself into the cell and leant against the wall. "But, you can redeem yourself. You can let me know how to fix this – I'm sure you know something."

"I know a lot of things," she said. "The real question is … Do _I _think I need to be redeemed?"

"If you could see things from both sides you would."

"Can you even see things from both sides?" The Huntsgirl created a blue bubble within her palms and sent it toward Jake. "You think I'm evil and that's fine –"

"I have a reason to," Jake said. "The Huntsclan went after magical creatures when we were in hiding, we were self-sufficient, not bothering or even interacting with humans. You thought that we should be hunted simply for existing. Why did you start hunting magical creatures? Because your master told you to?" Jake popped the bubble. "It's not your fault that you think this way. It's just now on you to realize that you were brainwashed one way."

The Huntsgirl frowned. "You don't have any sympathy for me. I won't fall for this."

"What do you mean?"

"You won't even call me by my name," she snarled. "It wouldn't matter to you if I told you that we were separated from our parents, never knowing who they were, raised to fight from the moment that we could walk, and education came secondary. You wouldn't care if I told you that we weren't allowed outside and despite living in New York my whole life, I didn't stand on a sidewalk until I was thirteen years old. If I said that I had to kill one of my brothers because of how you injured him so that he wouldn't suffer as long, it wouldn't bother you. You have no sympathy for me. You think I'm evil."

"Is that all true?"

Jake had sympathy. He liked to think that he was still a good person, despite what had happened and what circumstances had forced him into becoming. He would even say that he didn't regret some of the more heinous things that he had ended up having to do because he knew that the alternative would be worse – the alternative would be letting the tyrants get away with it completely. Would he do it again? Yes, absolutely. Did it keep him up, reliving the things he had done and wishing that he had never had to? Yes, absolutely. There was no winning in a war, no matter who was crowned the victor.

"You don't even believe me capable of being honest!" she lamented.

"You've given me no reason to."

"I have given you plenty of reasons to. I keep telling you things that turn out to be the truth."

"Hunts – Rose," Jake corrected and the bubble in her hands she'd been focusing on turned bright pink. "I know something happened with Kara and Sara. I don't understand it but I know they gave you their gift. You telling me things as a result of that doesn't count. I want _you_ to tell me things."

"I can _not _say things," she said. "Like you told me to with Spud. He's in for more suffering. As are you."

"Are you trying to bait me by saying that something's going to happen to Trixie?"

"Trixie is going to live a very long life," she said confidently and dismissively. "I wasn't aware having a conversation was baiting."

Jake raked his hands through his hair. "You're very frustrating to talk to."

"That's honest." She popped the pink bubble in her hands and it chimed loudly. "Tell me something else honest about you."

"What could I tell you that you don't already know?"

"I'm not omniscient," she said. "Do you have parents?"

"Yes. I haven't seen them in a while and I miss them."

"That's impersonal. That's the most impersonal personal thing you could have shared."

"Why do you care?" Jake asked. "Why do you need to know me?"

"Why do you need to know me? Why are you sitting in the corner of my prison cell? I'm sure you have better things to be doing. Clearly, I'm not playing into anything. I'll take my secrets to the grave, even if you _do _fall in love with me."

"_Even_? I thought it was non-negotiable."

She waved her hand, bubbles popping out of her sleeve and circling about her head. "That one wasn't mine. That one was _their _last prediction. Before it was … before they … Then it was …"

She was getting that look in her eye again and Jake knew he was about to lose her. He hurried to her side, grabbing her cuffed hands and making her look at him.

"Hey, Hunts – Rose, look at me. I don't want to talk about them. Don't think about them. We're sitting here and talking about personal things, remember? I used to skateboard. Is that something that you want to know about me?"

She wasn't looking him in the eye, instead over his shoulder. "What's the most painful thing you've ever been through? Physically?"

"You."

She startled, blinking and meeting his eyes and then blinking and closing them. "I don't … I don't know if I remember …"

"You used to a carry a staff. Six years ago, we were in a fight. You caught me with it and you cut open my stomach. You left me to die and I almost did."

"I was surprised to see you again," she said, her eyes opening slowly. "It was late at night in Manhattan. I remember it was Christmas and I was so mad that I had to go out. It was snowing. I love snow. I love Christmas. I was so mad that you ruined it."

"You love _Christmas_?"

It was such an innocent thing – the love of Christmas and the love of snow – that Jake almost didn't believe the Huntsgirl was capable of it.

"Don't you?"

"I haven't had much of a Christmas recently."

"We don't get much," the Huntsgirl said. "Or we didn't. Birthdays don't matter or most other holidays but Christmas was the one thing that the Huntsclan all celebrated together. Then, when we won the world –"

"Stole it." Jake couldn't help himself but she just rolled her eyes at him, like she was entertaining a child.

"We got more celebrations," she said. "New Years is popular amongst the Clan adults now. The first one we had when I was eighteen, the Master let me have champagne. I loved it. It made me feel so fun. I hadn't ever felt fun before."

She shook her hands free; Jake hadn't even realized that he'd still been holding on to her. She created a series of small bubbles from nowhere and they flew upward between the two of them, crashing into the large bubbles above her head and they exploded into a tiny shower of sparks.

"I never liked the taste of wine," Jake said, retreating from her.

"Christmas is coming, right?"

"It's mid-November so not really."

"It was about this time of year that I would start singing Christmas carols. Master didn't like it but he couldn't stop me when I was alone in my quarters. Jingle Bells is the most Christmas song of them all, don't you think?"

"I think Christmas music is annoying. My dad and sister would agree with you, though, that Christmas should start as early as possible." Jake crossed his legs. "We didn't make a really big deal out of Christmas, though. Chinese New Year was the bigger holiday for us."

Jake's throat began to clog up and he would be damned if he would let the Huntsgirl would see it. It had been a long time since he had thought of Christmas with his family and what it had been like when he was young, his classmates talking of Santa and how it was a big affair in their house, while it was a quieter one in his own. Alternatively, how special Jake had felt because there were very few kids in his school that celebrated Chinese New Year – but how could they have the New Year be as lowkey as Christmas when his grandfather was literally the Chinese dragon himself – and how he had loved the red lanterns and the firecrackers, of which there were always too many for their small family so he got to open them again and again.

"See, that's personal. That's sharing." The Huntsgirl smiled at him. "We could be friends."

"I don't think we're ever going to be friends."

"I think there's a universe out there where we could be friends."

"Maybe. I don't know anything about alternate universes."

"I don't either," she admitted, "but I like to think about it. It kept me very entertained when I was stuck in the hospital."

"You were making up alternate universes? I thought you were crazy."

"I am. Well, I wasn't. Or maybe I have always been. I scared them but on purpose. I started making things. Bubbles and flowers and I knew that they would think that I was magic and that the Huntsdoctors there would find out and I knew they would kill me. They wouldn't know who I was. They took my Huntsmark away. I wouldn't be safe from the Clan and the thought of being killed by my family was too much to bear. I would rather have them think that I was crazier than I was."

"What else can you make?" Jake asked. "I've only seen the bubbles."

"Just little things. I have no control over –" She inhaled sharply. "I think that's a story for another time. You don't get to know everything about me all at once. Although, I do like to talk. I was never allowed to when I was growing up. Children only speak when spoken to. That's why I found it so fun to fight you when we were younger because we spoke!"

"That's sad, Huntsgirl."

"My name is Rose. Come on, Jake, you've been doing so well."

"You take some getting used to."

"I had dreams about you … Well, the future dreams, you know?"

"Visions?"

The Huntsgirl pulled a face. "I don't like that word but … yes. I would see you and so it hasn't been any getting used to at all to be around you."

"What did you see of me?"

"Mundane stuff. You, transforming, so I knew you had different faces. I saw you fighting my family. I saw you with the spider lady – who I hope I never meet because that's just creepy."

"Veronica? Don't tell me you're scared of spiders."

"I don't like centaurs either. It's the half and half. Mermaids? That's not cute. That's terrifying."

Jake laughed. "Well, that's not really what I expected from you. I didn't think the Huntsgirl was supposed to have weaknesses."

"I'm not the Huntsgirl anymore," she said. "Please, call me Rose, Jake. _Please_."

"What's it matter?"

"It's hard to be constantly referred to as someone who doesn't exist. It's painful."

"I didn't bring you here so you could sleep on silk sheets and eat caviar for every meal."

"I'm not sleeping on silk sheets, I don't like caviar, and it's a name."

It shouldn't be just a big sticking point that the Huntsgirl had tried caviar. Jake thought it sounded disgusting and he was convinced that he wouldn't like it. But, still, she had probably tried it after the Huntsclan had 'won the world' so while Jake was with Fu and Gramps and Veronica, building greenhouses so that the overpopulated Magic Town could get food on a consistent basis rather than having to wait for raid teams to bring things back from the Huntsclan's outside world.

"It's time for your drugs," Jake said, checking the time on his phone. "I'll be back in a minute."

"I will be here." She shook her restraints. "Is just letting me be in the cell without being tied down not enough?"

"No," Jake said, "and you know that. So, I don't know why you even bothered to ask again."

"What could it hurt to ask? You're not going to hurt me for asking. I know that much about you."

"You know more about me than you did when I came down here," Jake said. "That's what you wanted, right?"

"I don't have a lot of room to want things. I am … very tired of …" She shook her head and then reached up to flick her hair over her shoulder. "Might I ask for one thing, though?"

"If you finish your sentence, I'll think about it."

"I have been fighting my whole life. Sometimes, I think that I'm very tired of it. I don't like sitting here. I don't like doing absolutely nothing and I know that I was meant for more and I do get restless but it is nice to not have to fight. I'm a prisoner; I should want to. But that drive went out of me the night that we died. For the most part." She smiled brilliantly. "There, that was several sentences. May I have a hair tie? I would like to braid my hair and get it out of my way."

"I'll see what I can find for you in the morning."

"I will take my medicine without argument, then."

Jake went up to Fu's workshop to fetch one of the premixed vials labelled with the time that she could take it to make sure that she never missed a dose. He checked on Spud before he went back downstairs. Spud was fast asleep, his feet hanging over the edge of the couch, the blue blanket that Fu had put out for him yanked up against his chin.

The Huntsgirl was exactly where he had left her but she was staring intently down in her lap, moving her fingers in a pattern. Jake wasn't sure he liked that at all.

"All right. You know the drill," he said, opening the cell door.

She moved one hand so that it was covering her lap and held out her other for the vial.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing. I don't have secrets."

"I'm not playing that game. There's a lot you haven't told me."

"That doesn't mean that they're secrets. Give me my medicine or I'll get crazier."

Jake slid the bottle into her palm and she took all of it and promptly handed the empty bottle back.

"You should try to change the recipe on that," she said. "It really tastes awful."

"Maybe it's all part of the torture."

"I don't believe that."

"You can believe whatever you want to." Jake slid the bottle into his pocket. "It's getting late. I'm going to try to sleep. I'll see you in the morning, all right?"

"Sure."

Jake had just opened the door to the cell when she called his name. When he faced her once more, she beckoned him to her side.

"Closer."

Jake watched her hands closely, waiting for the attack, waiting for the fight that she had said had died to come roaring back with a vengeance. Instead, she lifted the thing in her lap that she had been hiding with both of her hands and offered it to him.

"Just so that you don't forget."

Jake took the dark pink rose, long-stemmed and picture perfect, with a few pointed thorns that didn't detract from the large face of the flower.

"Goodnight, Jake."

"Goodnight … Rose."

**So, I finished writing this story this week! There will be fourteen chapters and it'll be about 55k words (give or take a little bit, depending on editing and rewrites)! At the time I published last chapter, I had only written about 25k words so I've really been on a roll the past couple of days! I don't know what I'm going to write next but I've got a couple of ideas floating around. But, we still have nine chapters left of this story which I am super excited for you to read. See you next week!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	6. There's Nothing To Be Sorry About

When Jake woke up the first thing he saw was the rose that the Huntsgirl had gifted him last night. He had placed it on his nightstand, next to the last family photo that his mother had ever organized for them. He didn't know why he had kept the flower instead of just throwing it out. Maybe he wanted to see if it would strangle him in his sleep or if it would do anything else strange. But it just looked like an ordinary rose and had acted so throughout the morning.

It was afternoon by the time that Jake rolled out of bed. Which was normal, except that he had been supposed to take Spud to Veronica this morning.

He stumbled down the stairs to find Gramps at the table, sipping tea with Dragon's Wings reports and spy reports spread across the table.

"Where's Fu? And Spud?"

"Fu took Spud to Veronica's since you did not get out of bed." Gramps put his tea down. "We were home early last night but I noticed you're bed was empty when I returned."

"I was down in the jail with the Huntsgirl. I think she's starting to trust me more and that I might actually be getting somewhere."

"Be careful. I still think this was a risker maneuver than necessary but you are a man now and you have proven that you are more than capable of making decisions."

"Think of how far we've come," Jake said, "Remember when you didn't even trust me to clean the shop toilets?"

"I had good reason not to trust you back then," Gramps said defensively. "You were a lot of trouble."

"Aw, come on, I wasn't that bad." Jake took the seat across from his grandfather. "Admit it – I wasn't that bad."

Without blinking, Gramps replied in a deadpan, "No, you were much worse."

"Don't ever change, Gramps. What are we looking at?"

Gramps angled a few sheets of paper toward Jake. "Nothing new, I am afraid. These are from other members of the Dragon Council. The Huntsclan's grip is only growing stronger and the Scottish dragon has perished."

"Is there anyone to go to Scotland as a replacement?"

"No. We already had to send Andrew to Russia. We have a bigger territory in the United States than most do. The European dragons will have to sort it out themselves but the Council is starting to inquire about Haley."

"Haley is under no obligation to fight," Jake said. "Gregory opted not to – they aren't hunting after him!"

"Well, he was never trained properly and Haley is bright. She made more than an impression."

"She's a strategist. We use her when necessary in that capacity _only_. I don't want her any more involved."

"Jake, there may come a day –"

"I have the Huntsgirl, Gramps," Jake said desperately, leaning over the table. "I will _make_ something change before Haley has to sacrifice anything like we have. It's not easy in the world but she might just get to become something, regardless of the fact that the Huntsclan is out there. All I want is to give her that chance."

"I agree with you, Jake, which is why I am not going to mention this to Haley now. Even though she has no official title, she is honourable, and will feel bound to help us. There was no chance to preserve your innocence and I wish for us to do that for Haley while we can. Do you think your methods with the Huntsgirl are working?"

"I think that she's a hard woman and that being raised in the Huntsclan isn't an easy life. I think that if we were to crack down on her and torture her, then she would shut down. The fact that I'm humouring her and being nice to her is what is going to work. She is talking! She hasn't said anything important about the Clan yet but she has told me about life in the Clan so I feel like I'm getting closer to something."

"Okay. I am trusting your judgement on this."

"Thanks, Gramps."

"I am going to visit the orchards. You should get out more. People are starting to worry that you have been injured and can't protect them."

"I was out last night to get Spud!"

"Not many are out at night. Take a walk today or tomorrow – that's an order, Jake."

"All right, all right. I'm going to take some food down to the Huntsgirl."

Jake prepared some food as Gramps left for the day. He was passing by Fu's workshop when something caught his eye: two vials sitting out for the Huntsgirl. Not one but two. Which mean that in the confusion of the morning while Jake had been sleeping, the Huntsgirl had not gotten her medication.

Jake grabbed the vial and hurried down the stairs, not sure of what he would find when he got there.

He found her standing in her cell, screaming incoherently. Her wrists were bloodied around from how brutally she had been pulling at her restraints. When she heard him, she whipped around, pulling one of the long chains upward around her neck.

"Don't you come any closer!"

She didn't have enough time to kill herself before he got there. At least, not with the chain. The explosive last actions of Kara and Sara played in front of Jake's eyes. Whatever they had done, that magic was now imprinted on her and he couldn't allow it to happen again.

Jake shut the cell door behind him carefully, searching for something that would make it right so that he could get the potion down her throat.

"I know what you are!" she cried.

"Yes, you do. But you know more than that. Do you remember how we stayed up late last night and talked?"

There was no talking someone down from a psychotic break but it was the only thing that he could do.

"I don't want this! Please! _NO! Don't do this to me!"_

The Huntsgirl had stopped looking at him.

"I can't get out of my head. They're in my head. No, they're out of my head. My hands won't move. I just have to lift my – No. No, don't listen. Don't listen to them. Their words mean nothing. Focus, focus. Just lift your staff and this will all be over. It's all about willpower, Rose."

She was frozen in place, only her mouth moving. Her arms were stuck at her sides, as if she really were holding the electrified staff that Jake remembered all too well. He took a step forward but it didn't catch her attention.

"What are you doing!?" she shouted and then she fell to the ground, screaming like Jake had never heard any creature scream before.

He rushed to her side but whatever she was seeing, he wasn't a part of it. He moved as quickly as possible, picking her up and moving her to the bed. She fought back against him – somehow, rudely enough, her imprisonment hadn't weakened her and he knew that the blows would bruise later. He wrestled her onto the bed, doing up the short restraints that would keep her anchored over the longer restraints. His fingers became slick with her blood as he got her wrists and ankles down. She struggled against him but was flat against the small bed.

Jake held the potion bottle and took off the stopper. The moment that the Huntsgirl saw it, she started screaming again, hurling curses and dirty names at him. Jake didn't let him affect him – this was what he had always expected from the Huntsgirl. He poured the liquid into her mouth and the clamped his hands around her face as he had done before to make sure that she swallowed it.

"Poisoner!" she screamed.

Jake had left bloody fingerprints on her face. He didn't know how long it would take for the medication to take affect but he knew that he didn't want to wait to start cleaning up her arms and legs. He could imagine that she was in pain and so he hurried back upstairs, taking a sleeping potion from Fu's storeroom and then the first aid kit.

When he returned to the Huntsgirl, she broke down again.

"No more! Please, _please_, I can't take anymore."

"You'll feel differently when you're yourself again. Come on, Rose, don't make this a fight too."

"How do you know my name!?" she snarled and then she spat at him.

"The hard way it is."

Jake forced the sleeping draught down her throat just as he had her medication and then he sat down in the corner of the cell. She became more slurred in fifteen minutes but didn't actually fall asleep for just over half an hour. Jake crouched guiltily in the corner, unable to leave her even though there wasn't anything else for him to do for her while she was awake. He needed to make sure that she didn't hurt herself anymore and he wanted to feel bad. She was his responsibility and he had slept in instead of making sure that she was properly medicated.

He had rendered the Huntsgirl helpless. She had been good about taking her medication and acknowledged, even, that it made her better, even though there was nothing that could clear her head completely.

When she was asleep, Jake approached her and took off the restraints. He looked his time cleaning out the gouges on her wrists and ankles, bandaging them and making sure that there was plenty of cushion between her skin and the restraints when he put them back on her. She didn't stir at all but Jake had given her enough sleeping potion that she should be asleep for another two hours, at least.

He decided to let her rest and would bring her food and water when she woke. He couldn't spend the day crouching in the corner of her cell when she wasn't mentally there. And he had promised her a hair tie and the only place that he could think to get one was in and around Veronica's stall. And, it would be nice to see how Spud was settling in to Magic Town and how Magic Town was settling in to Spud. There weren't that many humans in Magic Town, distrust being the obvious reason. Just because someone didn't bear the Huntsmark didn't mean that they didn't have allegiance to the Clan. It was even smarter of Fu, then, Jake reflected, to gift Spud the protective amulet like the ones he and Gramps wore. Many magic folks wore protective amulets and other talismans but the red ones that Fu had made for he and Gramps were distinctive looking and would make sure that people would know then that he was not their enemy.

Jake transformed and let himself out of Gramps' house. Cries of greetings rang out and Jake took his time making his way across town, interacting with as any people as possible. It would keep Gramps happy and it helped lift Jake's spirits too. It was easy to spend al of his time going from Gramps' home to raids on the Huntsclan and then back again and it was exactly what he did a lot of the time. But, being with the people he was trying to helped remind him that there was more than the fight. To actually speak to the people he was fighting for made Jake stronger and remind himself that even though he hadn't seen most of them in eight years, his friends and family still needed him to stay strong.

When he got to Veronica's, she was running the stall that had grown from magical curiosities to anything that the raid teams brought back as well as the food that magic folks grew themselves. She was in charge of organizing and dispersing al supplies across Magic Town.

"Hello, Am Drag!" she said brightly but a touch sarcastically.

Jake and Gramps' names were no longer used in public. A lot of magical creatures native to New York likely still remembered them but they all understood the need for secrecy. Veronica had struggled with it, particularly since she was a frequent dinner guest of Fu's and was the only person outside of the people he lived with that saw him as a human.

"Hey, Veronica."

"Spud's working out," she said instantly. "He's organizing back stock. He's slow but I don't have to do it so he can take as much time as needs."

Jake laughed. "Slow and steady has always been Spud's M.O."

Veronica nodded. "I'm trying to keep him out of the pubic eye unless he's with someone trustworthy. We don't want to cause a panic by people thinking the Huntsclan has managed to infiltrate us."

"You're smarter than all of us."

It was her turn to laugh. "That's what Fu keeps telling me."

"Oh, well, if Fu said it," Jake said and Veronica laughed again. "Mind if I go see how Spud's doing?"

"I can't say no to you but I don't mind telling you that he's already had his lunch break." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know what young boys are like."

"I'm twenty-five!"

"Do you know how old I am?" she playfully demanded.

"You're not a day over eighteen, Vee."

"Get," she said, shooing him toward Spud. "Fu taught you too well."

"Love you!"

Veronica humphed at him but Jake carried on, feeling in a better mood than he had when he'd left the house, not that he could forget why he'd felt bad and he would have to face her ate but Jake justified his outing to himself beyond his obligation to Gramps. The Huntsgirl was erratic and it was better if Jake avoided being irritable, since it would just make it worse.

"Hey, Jake," Spud called. "What're you doing here?"

"Checking on you. Making sure you're not causing trouble."

"Me? Cause trouble? Never in my life."

"How long have I known you?"

"If I ever got in any trouble, it was because I was friends with you."

"I plead the fifth," Jake said. "Liking the work okay?"

"I'm glad I have something to do; if I just had to sit around and think about the life I just left behind, I would …" Spud sighed and started sorting again, as if he needed something to do with his hands. "It's hard and necessary and all the things I knew when you disappeared but it's worse on this side."

"I wouldn't know. I've only ever been on this side of it."

"How'd you do it? Eight years, man."

"I hate to say it but you do get used to it. Not, like, it gets easier but you learn to live with it better."

It wasn't easy to admit. The people that they had left behind weren't a topic of discussion between he and Gramps. They never spoke of his parents or sister or friends that had died, as if they didn't exist. It didn't surprise Jake that Gramps found it easier to go on like that. Or at least, that's what Jake thought. He had always been to afraid to broach the subject with his grandfather, to bring up memories that Gramps would rather keep down.

"That kind of sucks."

"It _really _sucks," Jake agreed, "but it has to end someday. If me doing this now means that it'll end someday, how could I not do it?"

"I'm here saving my own skin," Spud said, "it's different."

"And Trixie's. And people that would have been hunted if you were suspected. They wouldn't have just killed you; they would have killed everyone connected to you."

"Thanks for the pep talk."

"I'm not any good at that," Jake said. "I need to head back to the Huntsgirl soon; she's our best chance of ending it. Does Veronica have any rubber bands or anything like that?"

"Um, let me check. Why do you need them?"

"She bargained for a hair tie. I don't know how she's going to cause any harm with it so I'm not worried over it."

"Oh, well, we definitely have some of those over here."

Spud dug around in a few boxes and then handed Jake three hair ties.

"Trixie's always broke on her so you might as well take more than one."

"Yeah, well, Trixie's got a ton of hair."

"Not anymore – she shaved her head, like, a year ago."

Jake shook his head, trying to recalibrate the mental picture that he had of Trixie.

"Right, I'll definitely not remember that next time I see her."

"She might grow it back out by the time I see her again."

"Don't think like that. Think like you'll see her soon." Jake held up the hair ties. "I've got to go see if these will work any magic."

Not that Jake thought any magic would come out giving her the hair ties when he'd had to over-drug her and she'd been left to scream herself hoarse while bloodying her limbs. But, he had made her a promise and Jake was sure that she would remember if he didn't fulfill it.

He made better time getting back to Gramps' – although he was still absent. Fu was in his little workshop and he called out to Jake.

"Were you in here earlier?"

"Yeah." Jake loitered in the doorway and then admitted, "I didn't wake up in time to drug the Huntsgirl and no else thought about it. She did some damage to herself so I also needed some of the antiseptic stuff –"

"Did you give her sleep medication and her potion at the same time?"

"Um, yeah, not that far apart –"

"And you haven't been watching her?" Fu leapt off his stool, hitting the ground on all four paws. "Kid, those two things can have serious interactions with each other; she shouldn't have been left alone!"

Jake pulled open the trap door and disappeared before Fu could even think to follow. He skidded around the corner, wondering if he was going to find the Huntsgirl sick, bleeding, or, worst of all: dead. He opened the door to the cell, leaving it cracked so that Fu could get in. She was exactly where he had left her, sweating and still breathing.

"What did you do?" she whispered, her voice hoarse. "It's worse. How did you make it worse?"

"What's worse?"

"Everything is coming so quickly. It doesn't make sense. I can just see it all. It doesn't make any sense … There's Master, giving his speech and … It was a girl and you would have loved – Oh, it'll snow soon … I …"

She carried on, trying to describe what she was seeing but she never got more than a few words in before changing her mind and Jake's head was left spinning trying to keep up with her.

"How is she?" Fu asked, padding into the cell.

"More disoriented than usual and she definitely has a fever."

"Then, we're lucky. Come on, we need to bring her fever down and the rest should follow."

And, so, Jake found himself applying cold compresses to her forehead and water down her throat. She drank willingly, without accusing him of poisoning her but she didn't let him off in terms of guilt. Throughout the meandering tale of her visions, she would fix her big blue eyes on him and ask, "Why are you doing this to me? Can't you make it stop? I thought I was being good." Once, she flew into a rage, telling him that this was why magical creatures, particularly dragons, deserved to be hunted to extinction and that when it came time for him to kill her, she would be sure to take him with.

Jake didn't respond, knowing that he deserved whatever she wanted to throw at him. He kept her cool and even did his best to braid her long hair even though it had been over ten years since Haley had attempted to teach him how to do it. The result wasn't awful, though she could probably do a better job of it herself. He just wanted her to wake up and see it, hopefully as a sign that he hadn't wanted this for her. Eventually, she quieted, falling into what appeared to be a normal sleep. It was then Jake had to leave her in the care of Fu.

He was slightly distracted as he took flight that night, admittedly. He didn't _want _to be. The Huntsgirl was a prisoner – one that would leave a slaughter in her wake if she ever managed to get free, just as she had done before. Alive was the only state that he should be concerned about keeping her in and her welfare shouldn't weight on him. Especially while he was performing his duties.

But, it did.

He didn't shirk his duties, spending the night doing everything he could to disrupt the Huntsclan's patrol teams and to just generally get in the way of their nightly routine, doing his best to avoid doing anything that would interfere with the humans next day.

An hour before sunrise, Jake made his way back into town. The world around him, for the most part, still slept and Jake wanted nothing more than to do the same. He heard Spud snoring as soon as he stepped into the house and even that enticed him to go straight to his room. Fu had left him a note, though, saying that the Huntsgirl's fever had broken and she was doing much better. Even without the written note, though, Jake would have made his way down to the jail.

She was sitting up on her bed; someone had adjusted her restraints so that she had some mobility. When she saw Jake, she curled her knees up to her chest and hid her face behind her knees.

"I'm sorry for making you ill," Jake said, staying on the other side of cell bars. If she was hiding from him already, he didn't want to force himself on her anymore than he had. "I made a mistake with your medications and it caused a bad interaction; I really didn't mean for it to happen."

"I believe you," she said. "Are you coming in?"

"If you want me to."

She nodded, relaxing her body slowly, crossing her legs and playing with the restraints around her ankles.

"How are you feeling?" Jake asked.

"You braided my hair."

"I _tried _to braid your hair."

There was a small smile on her face. "It was nice. It was the only nice thing."

"You saw a lot of things."

She nodded. "I don't know how _they _saw things but I don't have visions like that. Not never-ending. Mostly, inconsistently. Things come into my head and its not always a clear picture. Some things, I don't understand until later. Some things are complete. But that just … didn't stop."

"Did you see anything that meant anything? You mentioned a girl to me. One that I would have loved."

"You told me I wasn't allowed to talk about Spud," she said. "I hurt, under the restraints."

"You cut yourself open on them."

"Can't you let me out? I've been good. It was you that screwed up."

"Right but we still don't trust you. You know why."

"And, I've told you that I'm not the Huntsgirl anymore. I just want to be Rose. There's no going back to her and I don't know … If I want to, either. But, I _can't_."

"And I can't unlock your restraints. Tell me about Spud and the girl I would have loved."

"No," she said. "It's personal and I don't think you would want to know without telling him and then he would want to leave here and … It's better like this. Trust me at least that much."

"Then tell me something else," Jake said.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Did you see anything good at all?"

She tilted her head back toward the ceiling, looking as if she were staring up at the sun itself. "I think I'm going to see the snow again. I love the snow."

"You've said."

"Well, you don't even remember my name so I don't know what else I can expect of you." There was a hint of her old disdain in her voice.

"I've called you by your name, Rose."

"I have a feeling you don't think it."

"You don't know what I think. You're not a mind-reader."

"Sometimes you can just sense things," she said, "but you're my only – I guess I'm going to call you my friend now – so I will forgive you."

"Oh, we're friends?"

"I would deeply resent calling you my captor but I'm aware of what's going on."

"All right. Just don't be offended if I don't consider you _my _friend."

"That's because you still think of me as the Huntsgirl," she said, a tad triumphantly. "But, maybe you just don't want to be friends with me. Maybe that's because it would mean there was a chance that I was right when I said you would fall in love with me."

"I _know _you're not right about us falling in love."

"One correction," she said, whipping her hand up and holding out a finger at him but then she hissed and grabbed at the restraint.

Jake was on his feet immediately. "What's wrong?"

"It just … hurts."

"Will you let me check on them?"

She nodded and Jake crossed the short expanse of space and took her hand in his. It was the first time that he had touched her outside of the heat of battle or the tides of her illness. The padded bandage under the wide cuff had slipped exposing the strip of raw skin.

"I won't bite if you have to undo it."

"Don't get kinky with me, H – Rose."

She smiled smugly.

"Tell me what your one correction was," Jake said, knowing he had to undo the straps on her wrist but wanting to put off the moment.

"You said _we _would fall in love. I've only ever said that you would fall in love with me."

"Ah, so you think you're too good for me."

Jake undid the strip around her slim wrist. He paused for a moment, waiting for her to strike out, but she never did.

"We can be better than we were before."

"But would you have been better without the interference of the Twins?"

She thought about that as he adjusted the bandage and then replied, "I guess that depends on your definition of 'better'. When Master would have said I was at my best your community – is that what you would call yourselves? A community?"

Jake nodded.

"You would have said I was at my worst," she finished.

"And what do you think of yourself now?" Jake asked. "Comparatively?"

"Sometimes I feel like I don't have a self. But, even if I didn't, the fact that I can do this –" She tipped the hand that Jake was holding, sending an array of sparks in varying colours down to the floor where they fizzed and harmlessly faded away, "is not a reason that I should be killed or a reason I would ever hurt anyone else. I believe that now. That's different, at least."

"So, you don't want to hunt anymore? Magical creatures, I mean."

"I hardly have the ability to," she drawled, "so it seems pointless. I'm not going to live much longer although I'll kill again."

Jake hastily redid the restraint over her bandage while she laughed at him.

"I'm not going to kill _you_," Rose said, "but I still think I was right when I said it would be easier if you just killed me now. I don't know why I said it but I feel like it's right."

"I'm not going to kill you," Jake said, echoing her words.

"Okay."

Jake raised his eyebrows; was she really not going to argue with him? "You don't believe me?"

"I don't believe there's any changing your mind." She blinked. "It won't be you. No, I don't know if I … It's early; Spud's about to wake up and you haven't been to bed."

"I'm a grown-up; I can sleep all day if I want to."

She laughed. "The very first time I slept in past five in the morning was in the human hospital."

"I don't believe that."

Just as he had injured him, he had injured her. Badly enough, he knew, that she would have needed medical attention. It was hard for him to imagine that she'd been sent back to work immediately but it also made sense with what he knew of the regimented Huntsclan.

"Yes, you do."

"I'm not going to admit anything."

"Then, I'm not going to tell you any of my secrets," she said, almost playfully.

"Friends share."

"You've seen me naked and I've only seen you fully clothed. I'd say I've shared more than enough with you."

"Don't get flirty with me."

"I would know how to flirt if I tried," she insisted, tossing her head. "I've never flirted with anyone!"

"Never?"

"They were all afraid of me and I didn't like any of them." She sniffed arrogantly. "Any time I had to waste was _not _spent on a boy."

"You've had free time?"

"You have free time," she said, her eyes meeting his. "And you're spending it with a girl."

She was right, of course, but pointing it out in that context made something in Jake startle. Pretty women were something that he'd daydreamt about often. He thought of dates and kissing and the fact that he had just been on the verge of enjoying all of those things when the takeover had happened – the Huntsgirl at the head of it.

"You are very different from hanging out with _a _girl. A jail cell is not the place to have a date, anyway."

"I'll get to see the snow," she said confidently. "That sounds better than a jail cell."

"I'm going to bed," Jake announced, feeling like he had lost complete control of the conversation.

"Don't come check on me after you come back in tomorrow morning," she instructed. "I have other things to do."

Jake would never have skipped his visits in the morning – because of his worry over his medication and because they had just become part of his routine. Now, though, he was determined that he would be back earlier than she would expect him so that he could see what she was getting up to when she was alone.

"Good night, Rose."

"Good morning, Jake," she responded lightly.

Jake ascended the steps, wondering what she could be up to. Was she in contact with someone from the Huntsclan? It was nearly impossible but Jake wasn't going to rule out anything devious on the Huntsgirl's part. Otherwise, he couldn't imagine what she would be doing. She couldn't really think that he was going to follow her instructions, could she? She had to know better; he knew that she knew better. And, he was the only planned thing about her day – even if his visits were never really on the dot either. Throughout the rest of the day, Fu, he, and Gramps were careful to always visit her at different times of the day, to avoid anything like this happening.

He turned into the kitchen, thinking that he should eat something before he fell asleep and ran into Spud, he was crunching on granola and seemed asleep at the counter.

"Is it that late already?" Jake groaned. "I thought … Oh, man, it's a time trip down there."

"You're a time trip," Spud grunted. "It's early!"

"I told you, we're nocturnal," Jake said. "Are you headed off to Veronica's?"

"In a minute. You were with the Huntsgirl?"

"She's insisting that she's not the Huntsgirl anymore but that we should only refer to her as Rose." Jake sighed. "I don't know what to make of her at all but I think she's starting to trust me more."

"Great, I don't trust that she's down there," Spud said, nudging the top of the trap door with his toe. "Could anyone just open that?"

"The trap door? It's tricky. Fu needs to be able to get down there without Gramps and I so it's laid with a really intricate charm so that basically anyone intending to do harm can't open it but that anyone who has opened it from this side is guaranteed to be able to open it when coming back up. Her cell bars need to be opened by someone who has dragon blood, no matter what side of the door you're on. So, the odds of her even getting out of her cell are super low."

"She's not sucking your blood or anything, right? She's not a vampire or something?"

"Not that I've noticed," Jake said. "Do you need to check me for bite marks for your own peace of mind?"

Spud tossed his bowl into their small sink. "Once upon a time, Jakey, but I've got Trixie now. Don't try and tempt me."

Jake squinted after him as he went back to his living room to get dressed. Jake called after him, "Only Trix gets to call me Jakey!"

"Just try and stop me!"

"Night, Spud!"

"Night!"

Jake crawled into his bed and, even though he was tired, his sleep was not peaceful. It was full of a pervading fear, one that he could not nail down or fight against, but that never left him all the same.

**I wasn't sure whether or not to take a break for Christmas but, you know, this chapter was done and I figured, screw it. I always like when authors update over the holidays so I have somewhere to escape when family left me drained, so, here we are! Reminder that this is the last chapter on this time zone, I'll be back in the old time zone for the rest of the chapters, which is four hours behind!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	7. Born To Die

Jake was not in a good mood. Not by a long shot. It had been a difficult tussle with the Huntsclan tonight, who had probably broken a few of his ribs and succeeded in giving him more than a few gashes. Even though he had more than gotten his revenge and few of the members of the attack party on him had gotten away, it brought him down. The revenge aspect didn't fuel him at all and it made him feel worse than the injuries he'd received. He thundered inside with a rage that kept Fu quiet as he tended to him and Gramps kept his remarks about the night's missions short and to the point.

Cranky and in pain, Jake grabbed the potion for the Huntsgirl and opened the trap door, more than ready to put his head down on the pillow for rest. Maybe he'd feel better when he woke up in the morning or maybe he'd wake up cranky, like he did earlier, or maybe he'd just see the still-in-perfect-condition rose that he couldn't banish from his bedside and feel worse in the morning. He had the power to throw it out but he felt like he couldn't. He had carried it up and put it next to his bed and now it was as though he couldn't bring himself to touch it at all.

He was halfway down the step when he heard her voice and he stopped on the stairs.

"Trixie will live a long life; I've told you that."

"I just … You have the gift, right? You _can_ see things that have happened yet."

"Yes, but not always when I want to or what I want to know about. That's … the only thing I know about you or Trixie at all. Jake doesn't even really talk about you; I don't think he wants me to know him personally. But, I would have to mediate on it. About you and her. Maybe then something will change. I can't demand visions and they don't always come my way."

The shock of Spud's voice had yet to fade. The fact that Spud was talking to _her_, of all people, about things that Jake had just found out about! Jake gripped the railing and almost went downstairs but he heard Spud's next whimpering words.

"I just don't want her to die while I'm not with her. I don't want to die and leave her alone. I want to know what's going to happen."

"I know things about you," she said, "but you don't want to know them. There are painful things coming and if I tell you, you'll try and solve them. They can't be solved and you're going to have to take the pain. But you'll be alive to do it."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Talking to me doesn't usually make anyone feel better," she responded. "You came down here for a reason and I think I've fulfilled it. Besides, you're scared of me. You keep waiting for me to walk through these bars and kill you; I can see it on your face. Don't deny it."

"You're the _Huntsgirl_," Spud said, "why should I expect anything else? I know what you're capable of!"

"And I'm still capable of it but I'm not going to do it. The Huntsgirl is who I was and I have decided not to be her any longer. Whatever Fu Dog mixes up for me, I've been lucid. More lucid than I ever was in the human hospital. I feel … almost sane. If you're waiting for an outburst, it's not coming."

"I don't know what I'm expecting."

"You want me to lose my mind. Have a break down. Tell you things that you don't know how to make heads or tails of … That wasn't what I wanted to be but the human drugs don't help me like Fu Dog's do. I feel the most human I have in a long time, perhaps since the Huntsmaster first took me in his arms. There is nothing to expect and the only thing you need to know is I am capable of it all. Every terrible thing going through your mind, I could still do. But I'm not going to. I'm not going to make it through this world alive but I am determined that I will not go out as what I was made into but who I was meant to be."

"I don't … I'm not following."

"You can trust me, is what I'm saying. You don't want to know. Will you end up happy, in your life? Yes. Will she? Yes. Will it be together? There will be trial and there will be hardships, just remember that the hard parts are not what matters in a relationship, but working through them, so you can feel the good together again. I guess, though, it's important to feel each other's pain and to share the pain. I guess it's all about sharing, isn't it?" She laughed. "You have been through a lot but you have not yet felt the pain I am talking of when it comes with your lives together." She sighed. "I have nothing more to tell you."

"What kind of pain?"

"Please, don't. I can't tell you and you're only going to torture yourself. You will live through it. You will help each other through it. She loves you and your wedding will be pretty … if I don't tell you the truth right now. Otherwise, your grave will be pretty … while people remember you lived."

Jake started backing up, hearing Spud start to sputter and knowing his best friend well enough to know that this was where Spud would start to storm away. He made it to the front door and, so, it looked like he was just coming in when he met Spud in the kitchen. Spud never acknowledged that he had been downstairs and Jake knew that he shouldn't mention it. He _wasn't _going to mention it. To Spud, at least.

"I'm headed out to Veronica's," Spud called to him, "will you be up when I'm home?"

"Probably not but you won't be asleep by the time I leave. See you later, Spud."

Jake headed down the steps once more. As soon as he shut the trap door, her voice rang out, loud and clear despite the silencing charms about her cell bars.

"You're an eavesdropper, Jake!"

"So? What if I am?" Jake said, appearing in front of her cell bars. "You _had _to know that I would have the second you told me to stay away."

"Telling you to stay away was for my conscience, not yours." She sighed. "Come in, give me the potion. I already feel crazier and you're not even late."

"Crazier?" Jake asked, opening the cell door.

"I mean, I'm seeing more and I'm angrier. The feeling of anger isn't sustaining."

Jake put the potion in her hand and watched her drink it, determined not to tell her that he'd had similar thoughts just that morning. She put the empty bottle down in his hand, unaware of what was on his mind.

"I don't know if I should tell you this but I like how I've felt since I've been here. I didn't know if I would ever like how I felt again after what those twins did to me –"

"Those twins were great women, good to the core. More than you'll ever hope to be."

She didn't even seem to be taken aback. She said nothing about the Oracle Twins or even his outburst.

"I am something new. Oh, Jake, look what I learnt last night!"

She spread her hands and the shadow-figure out a dove emerged from her hands and flew itself into the ceiling before disappearing.

"You learnt it?" Jake asked. "From who?"

"From me. I didn't think you'd allow me to learn anything about what I can do now. You already think that I'm dangerous enough."

"Because you are," Jake said seriously. "And you didn't warn me last night about any injuries or anything that I should avoid. But, hey, I've got a couple of broken ribs – thanks."

Before Jake could react, she stuck out her hand, reaching under his shirt. Her chilled fingers touched his ribs – the ribs that would be healed under Fu's concoctions by the time he woke up from his sleep. Instead, under her fingers, her grew hot and itchy, and then he was healed. Not just his ribs, but Jake felt every bruise, bump, or scrape from the past week fade away in a brilliant flare of warmth. Jake pushed her hand away, feeling up his side in place of her fingers.

"What did you _do_?"

"You were in pain and I fixed it," she said. "I thought that it would help you. Help you trust me too but that wasn't my motive."

"You always have a motive," Jake said. "I've known you since we were children – we've always been enemies and you've always had an agenda. Even now, as Rose Dawson instead of the Huntsgirl, I don't believe you do anything innocently."

"I have a motive. I want you to trust me," she said. "You want me to trust you so I can tell you Clan secrets. What do you want to know? That one of the Huntsboys once played with the invoice so that everyone was delivered heart boxers instead of regulation underwear? That we had French Toast every Christmas morning? That my first memory _ever _is learning mathematics in a Huntsclass? Those were all secrets because we didn't speak of them to the outside world – there was no outside world for us – but you wouldn't consider them any importance. I want you to trust me for different reasons."

"What reasons?"

She looked away, picking at the edge of the bandage around her wrist.

"Rose," he said sternly.

"That sounded natural! Like, that's how you think of me!" she said excitedly. "I still think it's the best thing that I could have named myself. Would you have called me anything else and seriously meant it?"

"What reason do you want me to trust you?"

"If I was called _Hannah _or even _Lily _… It's so close and still a beautiful flower but I am _I _a Lily? I don't think so."

Jake gripped her upper forearms, meeting her blue eyes. "What do you know?"

"Don't hurt me," she cried. "Don't make the visions come back! Don't poison me!"

Jake didn't let go. "I know you're not crazy. That was you trying to play me. I know you better than that now and you won't get that by me. What does it matter to you if I trust you or not? By your own account, you're going to be dead soon anyway."

"I don't want to play you. I do want you to trust me and I do feel like you're my friend. That's not playing you."

It was said sincerely enough.

"Tell me, Rose."

"They … Those twins, they won't tell me until you trust me. Until you fall in love with me. There's something they're keeping from me."

"Kara and Sara are dead."

"Yes," she agreed, "but no. They died and their bodies died but they left their powers in me. They left visions in me. There are things that I'm not allowed to see. Not until the time is right. Which is why I know you _are _going to fall in love with me because I'm going to … Something. The whole world is going to change."

"You have already changed the whole world." Jake released her, like feeling the warmth of her skin had burnt his palms. "Are you going to fix what you've done or are you going to kill us off?"

"I don't know! I don't know what's going to happen! They won't let me see! It all depends on you."

Jake turned his back on her, rubbing his hand across his forehead. "How can it all depend on me?"

"I don't know. You think I like this? I just became resigned to it. The year I spent in the human hospital, knowing that you were coming? Knowing that I was going to be in the heart of magic? I heard the Huntsmaster in my head but then I got here. I expected monsters but I feel better here. I like you. Do you hear that? I enjoy the company of a dragon." She snorted. "The Huntsgirl was a good liar but she couldn't have told you _that _was a straight face."

"We're losing track of what this conversation is," Jake said. "Stop rambling!"

"Fighting and rambling are all I've ever been good at. Even you must have noticed how much I spoke to you when we were fighting!"

"We both talked a lot. We were fourteen! I wasn't aiming to kill then and neither were you but it made it seem like we were doing something!"

"We were doing our duties; they just conflicted. I _know _that we both understand duty and obligation. It just so happened we liked to argue while doing it." She cracked half a smile but Jake didn't smile back. "You used to have more of a sense of humour."

"Sorry if I haven't found much to laugh about since the Hunts-pocalypse." Jake said sarcastically and then he rubbed his temples. She'd gotten her potion. He didn't have to have anything else to do with her. At least, for now.

"Do you regret getting me from the hospital?" she asked.

"I don't like understanding so little," Jake snapped. "I don't even know why you're still alive! Why didn't you die with the Twins!?"

"I … I don't know," she whispered but her voice faltered.

"You're lying to me."

"Jake –"

"I'm going to bed."

Jake stormed out of the cell, not knowing why he was so infuriated. He couldn't expect truth from the Huntsgirl! He knew that! But … she had been so open and expressive that Jake felt like he had been tricked. He shouldn't have bought into it and he shouldn't have let himself take anything she said seriously.

And yet …

In his room, Jake grabbed the rose from his bedside table and shredded it between his fingers, letting the pink petals fall to the floor. He threw himself in bed and tried to fall asleep but the perfume smell of the rose continued to permeate the room, feeding the rage inside of him and keeping him awake.

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	8. Behind Closed Doors

The next morning was tense and every morning after that was more so. Jake threw out the rose every day – shredded it, fed it to unicorns, buried it, burned it, even – and it still reappeared, fresh as ever on his bedside table every time he opened his eyes. It always put him in a worse mood than he woke up in and he stomped down to the cell and handed the her the potion. She took it and always peppered him with questions, as though he had answered them recently. She spoke so happily and friendly, like there hadn't been an argument. He knew that she knew that he wasn't in the mood to entertain her but it didn't stop her from trying.

"Look!" she said proudly, the day that a shadow-dragon flew out of her hands, just like the dove before it.

"The south alleyway is a ruse, you know, when you go flying tonight."

"How's Spud? He's going to be happy today."

"Is it December, yet? I feel like it's December."

And, even as it turned out that the south alley was a ruse and it was December now, Jake only had one answer to everything that she said.

"Why did you lie to me?"

Every day, she steeled herself at the question and then went on chattering normally, making bubbles above their heads. That was when Jake left her. They continued on in this back and forth fashion until one day, as he brought her dinner, she sat on her hands and said, "Do you really want to know why I lied or are you just mad that I lied to you at all?"

"Can't they go hand in hand?"

"I guess. I lied because it's a secret and … I'm not ready to tell you yet. It's not time to tell you yet. It's all wrapped up together and I don't trust you that much yet. I want to but it's hard when you trust me so little."

"Why would I trust you at all? You lied to me. You tried to kill me."

"Not recently." She pulled her hair over her shoulder, obsessively braiding and rebraiding one small chunk of it. "What has happened recently is that I miss our conversations. I want you to miss me too. Is that crazy?"

"Is that why you made the rose reappear every night?" Jake asked while thinking that it wasn't crazy. He had missed her conversation too. Or maybe it was crazy but they were in synch with their insanity. Had they ever been in synch for anything?

"The what?"

"The rose. The one that you gave me. How did you do that without seeing it?"

"I didn't do anything," she insisted. "Once I let go of things, I either need to pop them myself –" the bubbles over head chimed – "or they last forever. I don't have to do anything else."

"How do you know they last forever?"

"I haven't lived forever so maybe they don't. But, I grew flowers outside of my window in the hospital room and they just stayed and stayed. The nurses there thought it was fun that flowers were sprouting out of a windowsill so high up but I didn't like them in my room and so I kept them out. But the flowers stayed." She cocked head and she threw her hair over her shoulder. "What do you mean? _Reappear_? Were you throwing it out?"

"I was angry."

She smirked. "I shouldn't be so surprised that dragons have a temper."

"Like you never did?"

"I've mellowed out," Rose said. "I've become a hippie."

"Without the pot."

"I've never smoked it!" she confessed. "Although, that shouldn't surprise you – if I've never been kissed and I've only ever had one drink a year for only seven years! Of course, I've never done drugs. I'm going to die before I ever get to smoke a pot."

"A pot?" Jake couldn't help himself; he started to laugh. "How old are _you_?"

"Twenty-five," she answered primly. "Just because birthdays weren't important doesn't mean we don't know our birth year."

"And you're saying a pot?"

She giggled, although seemingly without understanding why. "I'm glad you're smiling. You know, if you were a real boy and not a dragon, you might actually be handsome."

"I am a real boy and a dragon, Rose."

She glowed from within. "You haven't said my name in thirty-two visits!"

"You counted?"

"You're the only one who talks to me," she said defensively. "I talk _at _Fu Dog and Lao Shi while they visit me but they don't talk back. If I wasn't already crazy, I would have been after you've been ignoring me."

"I bet you aren't used to being ignored."

"I was in a considerable position of power."

"You're beautiful, as a real girl, you know that, don't you?"

Jake was even caught off-guard that he'd said it. It was true, though. The burn marks across her body were fairly easy to ignore, when it came down to the rest of her: the alluring height, the curve of her hips, every sweetly exaggerated feature on her face. She was the _Huntsgirl_ and Jake could never let that leave his mind. He was even more intent on it now that he had gotten so torn over her lying to him. Even so, she was a beautiful woman.

"I never thought about it. I never had any reason to. No one ever saw my face and I never had a mirror but I am … pleased that you think so," she said, almost carefully. "Pleased that someone thinks so. Pleased that you're talking to me again."

Jake crouched down near her. "I don't like these half-truths and not knowing everything."

"I'm a prisoner and you're my jailer. I don't need to tell you everything."

"Don't you want to?"

"If I'm not allowed to lie to you," she said diplomatically, "you're not allowed to manipulate me."

"You still haven't told me the truth."

"Me telling you this would be the equivalent of you giving me a map to every entrance into every one of your magic hidey-holes around the globe. Just try and understand that."

"It doesn't mean I don't want to know."

"Unless you're going to try and torture me, I'd just have to say that patience is a virtue."

"You just said I have a temper."

"You do! I just think there's more to you than the temper. Or the two faces. Which is something I've always known. Not the two faces but the fact that there's more to you. Like I said, I always thought you were funny. Maybe not _always_. You used to infuriate me a lot too. You're the only one I've ever felt like I lost to."

Jake had felt defeat many times. He would never say that there was one enemy that he felt more defeated by. However, it was true that the Huntsgirl's defeats had always felt more humiliating, maybe because he knew they were the same age or maybe it was because he'd had a sense even then that though they were opposites, they were the same.

Jake shook his head. No, he didn't know that back then. He didn't even want to acknowledge it now and he was – he liked to think, at least – smarter than he used to be.

"It was probably good for your ego to lose," Jake said.

"My ego was warranted," Rose said, "but it's one of the things that I've often wondered about."

Jake sat down in the corner he usually did, leaning his arms on his knees.

"What's that?"

"What parts of me are real and what parts of me were so shaped by the Clan that the other universes of me don't have them."

"Been spending time in other universes again?"

"You weren't talking to me." She shrugged. "All I have is my own head and sometimes it says things that aren't fun. The other universes are safer. If I focus, sometimes the other, uh, dreams – visions, whatever – don't get in."

Jake frowned. "Can you turn them on and off?"

Because Kara and Sarah couldn't.

"No, not exactly. But they're not constant. It's like I told Spud – which I know you heard," she added slyly, "if I focus on something, then likely that thing will come to me but, sometimes, if I keep myself distracted, then the little things that slip in don't really get in. The big things always do, though, the things that the universe or the twins or whoever thinks that I _need _to know, those ones _always _come in."

"What was the last thing that you needed to know?"

"That the alleyway was a ruse," she said after considerable thought. "I needed to protect you."

"Why?"

"Even the protector needs to be protected. That's my job right now. Jake?"

"What?"

"Do I feel like a job to you? Do you regret bringing me here?"

"You're a responsibility."

"That's not the same," she said, equal parts triumphant and questioning. "You have a responsibility to this community of yours. Do they feel like a job to you?"

"The American Dragon is who I was born to be but I don't exactly get paid. So, job? I don't know. It's _work_ and I wish that I didn't have to work under the current conditions –"

"The Hunts-pocalypse," she interrupted.

"Yes, that. But, I wouldn't be anything else or anyone else. So, yes, you're kind of a job and you're definitely a responsibility but I'm not sorry. I don't always like you but you're always interesting and I guess I can give you credit for that."

"I wouldn't have taken you, if the situations were different. I would have just killed you."

"No, you wouldn't have. Not if it would help your side. It's why I'm sitting here with you. I want your help and I want to teach you that helping us is the right thing to do."

Rose stared down at her lap, bubbles starting to appear about her head. She reached up and lifted one into her hands, filling it with the silhouette of a dragon. She sent it over to Jake and he watched the little dragon swimming around in its bubble.

"Can you do anything big? Jake asked. "I just see you make little things."

"In the hospital, I'd throw nurses around without thinking about it, shatter all of my restraints without trying. Things like that?"

Jake frowned at her. She wasn't looking at him again, overly focused on the little bubbles that she was making to stick all over her fingers.

"No, not like that. I mean, actual charms or spells."

"Are you going teach me? I like to be taught! I'm good at learning. The Huntsmaster didn't take an interest in me because I was pretty … Even though that's why _you _like me."

"I don't like you and I was just stating facts when I said you were pretty," Jake said, feeling like he was blushing but hoping that he wasn't. "And I'm not teaching you anything. You're dangerous enough as is." Which she knew because they'd covered it before, but Jake had to wonder what stuck with her and what she just ignored.

"I think you like me a little bit," she said confidently, blowing past every other remark he'd made. "You spend most of your time talking to me in the mornings, when you're the most tired. Not at night, before you go out. Which means you _want _to see me more after you're exhausted and tired and have had a long go. You find comfort in me which means –" here, she jumped off her usual spot on the bed and took a step toward him, "you like me. At least a little bit. You can admit it. Spud hasn't come to visit me since you eavesdropped and Lao Shi just hands me my potions and watches me drink and Fu Dog hasn't spoken to me since I guessed his birth year. I don't have anyone else to tell. Which means you can tell me _anything_."

"I'll tell you something embarrassing when you tell me something embarrassing," Jake said, deciding to ignore everything else.

She was right, of course, infuriatingly, by how close she was to the truth. He liked seeing her more when he was tired. He saw before, to give her the potion and, sometimes, to ask her advice about the evening ahead of him, but he liked unwinding with her in the morning. Even when he'd had a long, hard night, it was better to speak to her than to ignore her. He had enough long nights and dry days. She brought spark and life, something different than he couldn't quite define. Jake had yet to make up his mind about the age-old question of different good or different bad but it was different. He appreciated her different.

"I told you about the heart boxers debacle," Rose said, without waiting for him to respond and plowing ahead, "I wore them. Had them in my dresser until the day that I disappeared because they were so comfortable. Men's boxers!"

"That's not embarrassing."

"I was a teacher's pet," she said, trying again. "I always had the first to answer a question. I hated if anyone tried to beat me to it at all."

"So ,you were a bit of a nerd."

"From the fact that you called me a nerd," Rose said, "I don't think that you were one."

"No, I preferred fun. Trixie and Spud and I usually showed up for class but it wasn't a big deal if we missed it. My parents usually gave it a pass, just because I said that it was a dragon thing."

"Get out of jail free card. I'm sure your dragon ancestors would be so proud of you."

Jake shook her head and let out a yawn. "I'm going to bed, Rose."

"I'm glad we made up. I hated you being made at me."

"Not without good reason," Jake said. "You lied to me."

"It's not as though I haven't lied to you before. And not like you haven't lied to me," she added.

"I haven't lied to you today."

"That remains to be seen."

'You don't see into the past, just the future," Jake said. "If I did, you'll never know."

She winked at him and Jake shook his head.

"Goodnight."

"Good morning," she trilled.

Jake locked the cell door behind him and climbed up the stairs. When he got to his room, the rose had reformed and was sitting on his bedside table. Jake picked it up and inhaled it, thinking that it was once again a sweet scent and he was glad to fall asleep with the smell filling the room.

**I have been super sick so if the editing isn't as it usually is, blame it on that. I'm heading to Vegas later this week for a couple of days but I'll be back in time for the next update (though, forgive me if that one's a little late!). Hope you liked this chapter!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	9. Back To The Basics

Spud was off work early the next day because it was the Christmas tree lighting. There was a dust of snow on the ground of Magic Town and there was a huge fir tree that had been carefully grown and curated by magical creatures in the centre of town. They decorated it and lit it the first weekend of December. Not that any of them really celebrated Christmas but it was something that they all knew about and the pretty thing in the centre of town was a beacon of hope throughout the dark, dreary months when it was easiest to feel like they were, in fact, doomed.

"It doesn't feel like it any kind of Christmas," Spud said, kicking at the snow. "How could it?"

"It's not so bad. Everyone makes food and there's a big feast throughout the night. The Huntsclan only lightly patrols – Rose said that they are getting rather attached to Christmas and New Years, so that makes sense."

"You're on a first name basis with the Huntsgirl now?" Spud asked. "Not sure that sits well with me."

"She prefers it and she has to trust me in order to tell me anything." Jake dipped his wing and tried to gently nudge Spud on the shoulder but Spud nearly went face-planting onto the street. "Sorry."

"I like it better when you're the …" Spud glanced at the people around him. "The Am Drag I know."

"Yeah, me too. And, I promise, that she's not going to drag me over to the dark side."

"I believe you," Spud said and they went quiet as they ambled toward Veronica's.

Jake was sure that Trixie was on Spud's mind but he hoped that Spud didn't know that Rose was on his. He didn't know how to tell Spud that he didn't think of her as the dark side anymore, that she had truly seemed to separate herself from who she used to be, excepting for a few blink-and-you-miss-it moments. She was so easily bubbly and happy now, spewing off little things about herself that surprised him, flat out. She was something else now but Jake kept that to himself, not sure of how anyone else would take it.

He looked down as Fu rushed up between the two of them.

"I am so looking forward to gingerbread," he said gleefully. "There's no reason it can't be year-round."

"Because supplies for gingerbread are short and people stockpile all year for Christmas," Jake said. "We still have, like, three weeks until Christmas."

"Two and a half," Fu corrected indignantly. "We've got it marked on the calendar, kid."

"I never care about the calendar," Jake said. "Every day is the same."

"Except for Christmas," Fu said while Spud started singing Jingle Bells.

"I hate Christmas carols," Jake griped.

"Yeah, I remember," Spud said before resuming his singing.

Jake wished that Trixie was with them – at least then he would have someone on his side. He also thought of Rose, who loved Christmas and Jingle Bells in particular, and who talked of her alternate universe selves. He thought that one of them would fit in with he and Trixie and Spud, talking about Christmas and not caring about anything else.

He was glad when they reached Veronica's and his thoughts were disrupted. Rose – the Huntsgirl – had no place in Magic Town's Christmas celebrations.

"Oh, good. I have so many decorations for the tree," she said. To Spud she added, "All of the little ones like to make decorations to hang themselves but we put big glass balls and glittering strings –"

"Tinsel?" Spud interrupted.

"The magic version," Jake emphasized. "It's not a normal tree."

"It looked like a pretty normal tree."

"Looks are deceiving," Fu said. "You've been around magic for too long not to know that."

Spud shrugged. "I'm glad that there's some sort of Christmas here, after all. I think it would feel empty if there wasn't some kind of holiday."

"It's mostly an excuse to eat and celebrate," Veronica said. "Which we don't have a lot of reasons to do."

"You guys have fun, though," Spud said. "I've heard people around shop talking and you too."

"Hopefully, people will trust you more once they see you tonight at the tree lighting in the company of the dragons. And keep that amulet out," Veronica said, sounding like a harried babysitter. "Fu gave that to you so they would trust you. It doesn't help if you hide it under your coat."

Spud slid the amulet out and let it flop onto his chest. "I'm just not used to wearing jewellery."

"You'll have to get used to a wedding ring," Jake snorted.

"If we both get through this alive."

"You haven't died _yet_."

"Boys!" Veronica said. "Start taking things out to the tree. I don't want to listen to your bickering."

"Yes, Mom," Jake muttered under her breath.

Veronica intentionally stepped on his foot with four of her legs as she walked by. Jake grabbed two of the boxes while Spud picked up one and headed after him. People waved at Jake as they decorated the fronts of their homes and their shops, their hands full of lights and ribbons that changed colours on their own. At Spud, however, they averted their eyes and went back to what they were doing. Jake made sure to speak to Spud loudly, in a friendly tone, trying to prove to the people around him that there was nothing to fear in Spud.

The towering tree stretched to the rooftops and winged creatures soared about it, opening the boxes as soon as they were dropped off. By the time that the sun was setting, the town was crowded around the unlit tree, although the glitter and gems about the tree were picked up by the street lights.

Jake stood next to Gramps, Spud and Fu between them. Every year since they had gone into hiding, Gramps had made a speech and then flown to the top of the tree; he would set the star on fire and then it would magically work its way down the tree, lighting the whole thing. It would stay lit until New Years Day and then the fire would go out, the tree would be undecorated, and then the tree would stay where it was until it was time to repeat it again the next year.

Now was the time when Gramps would step forward and say a few words of comfort in his deep tones that conveyed importance and hope. Instead, this year, he turned to Jake.

"You should do it this year."

"What? Why?"

"You are the American Dragon. These are your people and you cannot always follow me. You have been doing a good job these past years and this should not be my task."

Jake felt intimidated as he stepped forward. Not that he'd ever been shy – he'd unapologetically rapped his way through middle school and a fair bit of high school. He'd been a source of entertainment and had never cared when eyes were on him – except for when it happened in his most embarrassing moments and his embarrassing moments were, unfailingly, always in front of a lot of people. It was different because he could feel the weight of what was at stake. Everything that Gramps had said in years past went flying out of his head as he tried to grapple around in his brain for words.

"We have been fighting," Jake said slowly, "for a long eight years. Sometimes, it's easy to think that that's all there is to life now but it's not. The time for celebration is here; the time to remember how much that we love each other and how strong we are. It's the time to remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel."

There was applause as Jake took flight. His speech had been even shorter than the ones that Gramps usually gave – and Gramps wasn't known as a rambler. Still, it was all that Jake had in him and he lit the star. He stayed in the air, watching as the creatures' faces were bathed in the golden glow of the fire. It was magical, in and of itself, when the lights started going and the ornaments started moving, feeding off the energy of his flame. The streets were filled and all Jake could think of was that every individual face was under his wing. They shouldn't have to live like this. Not everyone was as ignorant as the Huntsclan and if they were gone and a new government was installed, there might not have to be a witch hunt. What if they could live differently?

That sight, of all of them standing about, was all that was on his mind as he returned to the ground. There were warm drinks and good food and they spent several hours talking and interacting. Jake introduced Spud as an 'old friend' to anyone who came up to talk to him and people acknowledged him a little more, although parents kept the young ones as far away as they could from the unknown human.

When Jake escaped the festivities – citing that he needed a power nap to get through his raid tonight – he went straight down to Rose. She was standing on her bed, holding her hands up as high as her restraints were allowing her to. Along the ceiling, she had fixed a series of stars and lights, just like the ones that were on the tree he had just left.

"Oh, Jake," she said, jumping off the bed and turning to face him, "that tree was beautiful!"

"How did you know?"

"You told me you were going to do it today and so I was thinking about you. I got to see when you lit it!" Her blue eyes were shining and she clasped her hands under her chin. "I've never seen such a pretty tree! Things moved on their own! There were faeries that flew and ballerinas that danced! It was … amazing."

"Magic can do amazing things."

"It does things," she agreed. "I'm going to ask you something and I know you're going to say no but I really need you to think about it."

"What?"

"Don't leave town tonight," she pleaded. "It's going to go wrong. You're going to get hurt –"

"I always get hurt."

" – and the people who leave with you won't come back," she finished. "I'm saying this for their sakes as much as yours. The loss of life will be horrific and on your hands. You'll never trust yourself again."

"What's going to happen?"

"An explosion of some sort." She shook her head. "I can't see where or when it's going to happen, so it's unavoidable, unless you don't leave."

Jake crossed his arms and stared at her, trying to puzzle her out. If she was the woman that she had presented herself as since arriving, then he had no reason not to trust her. But that woman was such a small part of their shared history and Jake couldn't ignore the Huntsgirl when weighing Rose's character. This could be the fruition of the Huntscan's plans. She was in Magic Town; she had given Jake enough tidbits about the future that she built trust and then she asked him not to go on the nightly routine offense. She was either saving his life or making sure he was trapped inside when the Huntsclan arrived.

"I haven't been wrong yet," Rose said.

"But you _have _lied."

Rose immediately looked like a kicked puppy. "Not this time! And it's not the time to bring that up. I know more than you. I need you trust me."

"Asking for hair ties was easier," Jake grumbled.

Rose giggled. "Except, I didn't have any hair ties and you already trust me."

"Don't be crazy," Jake scoffed.

"Can't help it. Crazy's what I am now."

"You … seem better, though," Jake said hesitantly.

"Things still happen inside." Rose tapped her temple. "But, I can stop myself, think it through instead of just erupting and reacting. I don't feel like I'm being tortured anymore." She waved her hand dismissively and leant forward. "Stay here. Don't go out. Just patrol the town inside."

Jake checked the time on his phone. Gramps would be readying to leave within the hour. If Jake could convince him to keep his raiding crew it tonight then it wouldn't look suspicious when he kept the patrol team in too. If he was going to trust her at all.

"I'm going to consult with my grandfather."

"He actively distrusts me."

"He has good reason to."

"I'm Rose."

"I know." Jake paused with his hand on the cell door. "Are you cold down here? Do you want another blanket or anything?"

"Another blanket would be nice, thank you."

Jake left her, suddenly feeling strange. He was sure that Rose would see it in his expression and press him on it, just like she pushed everything. And there was no reason to feel strange. She was his prisoner, his responsibility, and it was just a blanket.

He found Spud and Fu in the kitchen, putting leftovers from the Tree Lighting party in the fridge. Gramps was seated at the table, reports and a map of New York in front of him, strategizing for the supply raid that night.

"Gramps," Jake said, taking the seat across from him. "I need your attention."

Gramps looked up, focusing on Jake even though he was clearly annoyed at being interrupted. Jake spoke quickly, outlining what Rose had said and then the pros and cons. When he finished, Gramps stayed silent while Fu and Spud didn't. They both sent up a flurry of protests that the Huntsgirl couldn't be trusted. Gramps listened to all of that too before he raised his hand the kitchen fell silent.

"If it were you making the decision," Gramps asked, "would you stay in or go out?"

"Stay in. We can set patrols. If she's trying to trick us, we'll be on guard and we've more ways out of here than they could possibly know about. Better to have both dragons present if there is an attack. And, if she's telling the truth, then we save lives, only lose one night of patrols, and possibly throw the Huntsclan off-guard by not being around."

"I agree," Gramps said. "If this is your chosen plan of action, I will follow you."

Jake glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of Fu pulling Spud out of the kitchen. A lump in his throat, he turned back to Gramps.

"I follow you," he said, softly, weakly, like he was the child who had first transformed.

Physically, Gramps had always been short; he was dwarfed by those around him and it hadn't taken Jake long to surpass him either. Despite that, Gramps had never been a _small _man. He moved deliberately, radiating wisdom and power. When his temper flared – and it did wildly fare – it was striking and everyone who witnessed it could see the dragon the lurked beneath the white eyebrows. Tonight, though, Jake just saw an old, tired man, pushing himself beyond his capabilities.

"It is time I stop standing in your way. You were ready long ago but I suppose it was I who wasn't ready to stop seeing you as the boy who couldn't balance his tail." Gramps smiled faintly. "This is what you were meant for and you are more than capable. Where you lead, I will follow."

_I follow you._

Jake wanted to protest again. For his whole life, there had been his grandfather's footprints ahead of him, leading the way, even before he'd started dragon training. Jake knew he was meant to lead; he had been the American dragon from the moment that he'd been born and had gone by that name since his first transformation. He had felt the weight of all that it had truly meant for years, coming home to Magic Town and the haggard, hopeful faces of those who lived here. It was inevitable, he had known in the back of his mind, that one day he would have to stand free of Gramps and his teachings but the day that happened had always felt distant. Like death; he knew someday it would come for him too but someday never felt real to him. Except, he was twenty-five and someday had come out of nowhere, it seemed.

"Thank you for putting your faith in me. I won't let you down."

"You never have," Gramps said solemnly. "Not even when you were young and dumb."

"Thanks, Gramps. I'm going to reorganize the troops."

Jake left Gramps in the kitchen and paused just inside of the front door to wipe at his face and take a few deep breaths.

_Where you lead, I will follow_.

Jake took his phone out of his pocket and texted Trixie.

**Jake: Don't go out tonight – no ops. Lay low.**

** Trixie: Something coming?**

** Jake: Don't know yet. Stay low.**

** Trixie: Okay okay. Will do.**

Then, Jake transformed and let himself out. He had some leading to do.

(-.-)

It was a long night in which nothing happened. They walked the borders of Magic Town, doubled the usual amount of guards on every entrance, and everyone else stayed locked tightly inside, concerned about what the lack of nightly raids and extra security patrols meant. But, Magic Town stayed silent, just as Jake knew it did every night. He still stayed up all night, kept to his normal hours, and when he knew that the news was airing, he convinced Fu to go out and prowl the streets like a stray, to see if anything _had _happened during the night that was being reported on.

Fu was back in by seven, having caught the six o'clock news.

"She was right," he said, sliding Jake's morning health potion and Rose's morning sanity potion across the table to him. "Gas line blew. There was a Huntsclan patrol group going by at the time – a lot of injuries but, apparently, no fatalities."

If the Huntsclan's patrol group had been there, so would Jake's patrol team have been. She'd been right, just as she'd said she would be. It wasn't a trick; it wasn't her betraying them to the Clan. And, Jake found that he wasn't surprised that she'd been telling him the truth. He drank his potion, picked up Rose's, and then fetched her an extra blanket, taking it down the stairs with him too.

She was still lying in her bed when he arrived, which surprised him. She was usually up and bouncing around whenever he came down – the only times he had caught her sleeping was when they'd had to drug her or when she had been sick. Even if there were no dark circles actually around her eyes, Jake hadn't believed that she really didn't sleep.

"I'm not having a good day," she said as he opened the cell. "I'm warning you now."

"Not having a good day how?"

She forced herself to sit up, holding out her hand for the potion. She downed it in one long go and Jake spread the blanket over her legs.

"There seems to be a lot in my head today. I'm not going to lose it, I don't think, but this is the most out of control I've felt since your potions started working."

"I'm not late with it," Jake said, making sure he took the bottle back from her hands.

"I didn't say you were." Rose flopped back down on her side and let out a huff, half scratching underneath the cuffs around her wrists. "I'm not going to be good company but I have to know – was I right?"

"You were. You know you were."

"I just wanted to hear you say it." She wiped her hand across her forehead and groaned. "I feel nauseous."

"Are you going to be sick?"

"No, but I think your mother's going to get the flu."

"My _mother_?"

"Yes. I've gotten used to you so I see your family more. Your friends more. Who's Vicky?"

Jake was so caught off-guard he answered the question without thinking about it. "She's a siren. She lives here. She's always trying to get close to me and I don't let her."

"Good," Rose said. "Because you're in love with _me_."

"I'm not in love with you," Jake reminded her, wanting to laugh about how she sounded like a jealous girlfriend, but he knew it wasn't the day. "I'm not in love with anyone. Besides, if you thought I was really in love with you, you'd be spilling all of your secrets. That was the deal that you said Kara and Sara left you with, right? That was the key?"

"No, no, no, no!" Rose blanched. "No, not again. Don't take me through it again!"

"Rose?"

But, clearly, Kara and Sara's names shouldn't have been spoken today either. He watched as she was lost in the same replay that that he had seen before. This time, though, she wasn't hurting herself and Jake just stood back, watching it unfold. He was trying to get information about what had happened to her, exactly, the night that Kara and Sara had died. He had to get more than that out of her too but he wanted to know why she had lived while his friends hadn't. But, it also felt too analytical. She was suffering and he was just in the corner, taking notes. It was necessary but Jake didn't want to know what kind of person that made him.

She stood on the bed, her eyes level from her, staring at people who no longer existed.

"I can't get out of my head," she said. "They're in my head."

All the same as before.

Her hands held her long-gone staff.

"It's all about willpower, Rose."

Then, the script changed before she fell to her knees, screaming.

"It's not all about willpower."

Jake leant against the wall, feeling his knees about to give out. That was not _her _voice. It was the voice of Kara.

"We see what you are."

Sara.

But coming out of Rose's mouth. As if they were still here, standing in the room.

"We know how this will end," Kara said.

Then, half-manically, as if they already knew how the night would end for them and they were drunk on it, they asked, "Want to see?"

Rose's own voice returned to her. "What are you doing!?"

And then the screaming began. The awful screaming that Jake knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Jake cocooned her in her blankets, heavy, like he was straight-jacketing her. She screamed herself hoarse, even with the covering and then it came to a sudden end. No petering out or whimpering. She just shut her mouth and was done, lying limp on her bed, her eyes shut. Jake braided her hair as she laid there. She seemed fully asleep and Jake felt his own eyes drifting.

Jake went up to get Fu and he went down to sit with Rose while Jake went up to bed. He laid there, tossing and turning, the rose on his bedside table filling his dreams.

**Sorry this is late; not only was there my Vegas trip but then Fanfiction wouldn't let me update!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	10. I'm Indebited To You

"I'll make you a deal," Rose said when Jake went down to visit her that evening.

"Can I ask how you're feeling first?"

"Worse than my normal training days. Better than my one-on-one days with the Huntsmaster. Those ones hurt."

"Why? And what's the deal?"

"One conversation at a time!" she wailed. "I can't keep up."

"Sorry."

"He was mean, that was all," she said. "You don't need to know more than that."

Okay. Jake knew how to let a subject drop when it was necessary.

"What's the deal?"

"Don't mention _them_," she begged. "Not unless I do first because I can't live through that all again."

"So, you remember that you're seeing it?"

Rose nodded and she traced one of the burns on the back of her hand.

"Of course. I remember all of it. Thank you, for wrapping me up like that. It did help."

"I guess I shouldn't ask what you're seeing."

She shook her head.

"You'll tell me someday, though," Jake said, wondering if he was pushing his luck.

"Yes," Rose said, seemingly unoffended. "Someday, you'll know everything. But, that does depend on you."

"You mean that depends on me falling in love with you," Jake corrected.

"Exactly so you might want to get to work on that. I mean, if you really do want to change the world."

"You already did that," Jake said, just as he had done before. This time he added, "Without loving anyone."

Rose tugged at her hair, agitated with him. "I loved my Master. I killed so he could change the world and, then, after all that I did, I couldn't even go back! No mark and all this obvious magic?" She laughed bitterly. "But, then, why would I even want to go back? You think it every time I talk about it."

"Well, mostly, you've made it sound pretty miserable."

"It was hard. There's a Rose in another universe that likes soft things and takes the past of least resistance but I like a challenge. Everything worth having has to be earnt and I had good things." And she told him about a penthouse with a view, the whirlpool bathtub that she viewed as a saving grace, and the food the Huntschefs prepared daily. "You can find things to love, even if it's not all loveable."

Jake laughed. "You're not really subtle, you know that?"

"Have I ever claimed to be?"

Jake tried hard not to roll his eyes.

"I find your hope fascinating, even if your temper is frustrating." Rose put on a smile so brilliant that it was distracting from everything. "Your turn."

"Your visions are helpful."

The way she was staring at him made Jake squirm. He knew it hadn't been enough. He could tell her she was beautiful again but he could sense that would fall short too. She wanted something real.

"Your strength," Jake said slowly, "is commendable."

Which, at least, was honest. From the physical strength the Huntsgirl had been known for to the mental strength Rose kept showing him it was, without a doubt, her defining characteristic. More than the scars or the crazy or the Clan mantra.

"Thank you."

"I don't think there's an alternative universe Rose who's weak."

"There must be – otherwise, what's the point of an alternative universe? There's one where there's no Huntsclan or you're not a dragon or we're friends –"

"Hold on," Jake said, knowing she could just keep going. "I thought you already decided we were friends in _this _universe."

"Different kind. Like, meet in school and study at coffee shops or be movie buffs or try every sushi restaurant in the city kind of friends. Do things together kind of friends, where you don't medicate me and my clothes don't say prisoner type of friends."

"I see."

"I've never had a friend like that."

"Well, Trixie, Spud, and I never ate at every sushi restaurant in the city – I don't even know if it's possible – but we used to go to the movies. The skate park a lot too. But, it's been a long time."

"Do you hate me?" she asked, plucking at the corner of her blanket, deliberately not looking at him. "You know, for being part of what took that away from you?"

"I used to. A lot," he admitted, although she couldn't have been surprised.

"And now?"

"Now, it depends on how you answer this: would you do it again?"

Jake was sure that he knew the answer but a wash of emotions he couldn't identity came over him when she looked him in the eye and said, "No."

"Good."

Rose stretched and then created a flurry of snowflakes from the ceiling. She looked disappointed as they fell on her hair and sleeves, not melting but staying like bad dandruff.

"It's not the same." She sighed loudly and banished it all without so much as a flick of her fingers. "Change is in the air."

"What kind of change?"

Rose shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?" Then, she laughed at herself. "Oh, right, right. I just think winter air feels like change, like something new, you know? More than spring, summer, or fall anyway."

"Disagree. It's fall."

"Fall smells like decaying things."

"Not to people who actually went to school."

As he said it, he could smell the freshly buffered floors, the combination rubber and wood smell of a new pencil, and the odd, hollow smell of a newly-purchased backpack. Jake wouldn't have another back to school September and it had been nearly ten years since his senior year but September still felt like that – brand new, reinvention, a cycle just starting.

"Fall doesn't know what it is."

"Winter is just dark and grey," Jake argued. "Everything hibernates. Nothing changes when everything's at a standstill."

"The world," Rose said, with all of the authority of a teacher reciting from a textbook, "never stands still."

To Jake, it often felt like the world did just that. His life had been so routine for the last eight years that it mostly felt like one big day, with few milestones to look back on and confirm that, yes, something had actually happened.

"You've been shackled to a bed for over a year and you still believe that?"

"Yep."

Jake waited for more because Rose simply didn't give one. When it came clear that this was the one exception, Jake prompted her for more.

"I just don't know how to explain it to you. Jut because I was physically in one place doesn't mean I wasn't changing and things weren't happening. It was all just happening inside of me. And I don't mean the crazy." Jake must have looked unconvinced because she asked, "Do you feel like the same person you were eight years ago?"

Kind of, yes. He'd kept his head down, fought on, and nursed the homesick little boy in his heart, just as he still did every day. He took his health potion, helped the townspeople, and led the raiding teams, just as he'd been doing for years. He argued against despair, dreamt of his family, and focused on his hero's path. Change, inside change as Rose had specified, had to have happened in the past years but Jake didn't feel it.

"Do you understand though?" Rose asked, probably correct in her interpretation of his silence.

"Yeah, I guess. For the most part." The sameness of himself probably would never have occurred to him, let alone annoyed him, if it weren't for her. "It's my outside that needs to change. I can work on my inside after that. You know, when I can be a real person again."

"You're not really a person, if you think about it."

"Then, I'm not really a dragon, either," Jake countered without missing a beat. "I can really be both."

"Yes but you'll always have to _be _both. How can you hold down a nine to five corporate job when at any moment Centaur City could be under attack?"

"There's no such place as Centaur City and the dragon is my work. Besides, I was never destined for corporate anything – Haley's the one with real world aspirations."

"Oh, Haley." Rose sighed wistfully, as if Haley were an old friend she'd just recalled. "There's a happy ending … but that makes sense. You guys feel opposite."

There was so much there to tackle.

"Do I not get a happy ending?"

"The far off future can always change but knowing me … You will suffer. After I die."

"Because I'm going to fall in love with you before that," Jake said flatly.

"Well, that and the girl."

Right. Just one of her many predictions that Jake had catalogued, knowing that she wasn't going to elaborate on them.

"What do you mean Haley and I 'feel different'?" Jake switched topics, not having the knack Rose did for pushing topics. He was sure that if he were Rose's prisoner instead, she would have somehow dragged everything she wanted to know out of him already, instead of getting lost down meandering paths of conversation.

"I just get a feeling of people and who they're going to be when I see things about the future. Just like if I were really standing in front of them. Some people just feel angry or happy, you know, at their centres."

Jake nodded. That, he understood.

"Spud feels mellow. Even though he hasn't been very mellow. Or was that just with me?"

"There's a lot going on in the world. Chill isn't a concept for people under a dictatorship."

One of Rose's bubbles floated toward him. Inside, the shadow-figure was a perfect replication of the burly Huntsmaster. When it got close enough, Jake reached out and jabbed it with a finger. The bubble bent inward but didn't break. Annoyed, Jake summoned claws of the dragon and swiped at it and that was when it burst violently. There was no room for the Huntsmaster here, even if he was just as shadow.

He looked up as Rose jumped off her bed, getting as close to him as her restraints would allow.

"What did you just do?"

"What?"

"Your hand … wasn't your hand."

"You know what I am," Jake said. "Did you really think it was all or nothing?"

"Yes. That would make sense. You can't just blend things together like that!"

"You just hate half and half creatures."

Rose pulled a face. "Yes. They unnerve me more than anything else. _Could _you make yourself evenly half and half?"

"Yes." Not that Jake had ever had any reason to try but logic dictated if he could pull out all of the pieces, he could have the butt of a dragon and the head of a human if he wanted to.

"I hate that. More than anything else that I hate about you."

"How many other things do you hate about me?"

"Not as much as I think I should," she said.

She could probably sense that her answer displeased him, because she sent another bubble with the Huntsmaster enclosed inside of it. Jake stared at it as it hovered in front of him, waiting for Rose to explain its presence.

"Do it again," she commanded, sounding like the Huntsgirl on a mission. Rose realized it the moment he did, tacking on a genuine, "Please? And slower. I'd like to see it."

Jake let his right-hand turn to a dragon's again, the red scales reaching up to his elbow while his nails extended into sharp grey talons. Rose's eyes were wide as he swiped at the bubble again, getting no satisfaction from watching an imitation Huntsmaster explode on impact.

"If only it was that easy," he said.

Then there would have been no underground living. There wouldn't have even been a takeover. He would have just had a life.

"It doesn't matter how majestic the house if the foundation is flawed."

"Okay, what does _that _mean?"

"Can I see your arm?" she asked, just like an easily distracted child would.

Jake gave up and moved closer to her. Like everything with Rose, she would tell him on her own schedule. Which wasn't how the jailer/prisoner relationship worked or what he nor anyone else had thought would happen when he'd brought her here. But that was the relationship he had with Rose Dawson.

"Can I touch your arm?"

"Answer a question, first."

"I'll try."

"If the Huntsclan didn't even give you a first name, how'd you get a last name?"

"There were two Huntsboys that I used to spend time with before we all died," she said, as though it were no big deal. "One time, we were supposed to be on a scouting mission but there was nothing for us to find. We passed by a theatre playing a special feature of an old movie. It was a sad one but the lead character had the same first name as I did. It was childish but I liked it." She grinned at him. "Can I touch your arm now? The other one too? So, I can compare."

Jake held still as she ran her fingers along the tops and bottoms of his arms, flexing his fingers and his claws at the same time. His mother had finally told his father about her dragon heritage when Jake's grades and physical state got too much for Dad to make his own excuses about. While he was proposing wild theories about drugs and street gangs – that, he proclaimed firmly, were not going to take _his _son – Mom and Gramps had been coming up with an explanation plan. Jake and Haley had sat shoulder to shoulder on the loveseat, no arguing about their proximity for once in their lives. Dad had been sat between Mom and Gramps. Gramps had spoken calmly and matter-of-factly, interrupted only by Mom's emotional tidbits. Dad had looked dumbstruck until Gramps finished and then he'd turned to Jake and Haley and excitedly asked to see.

"Verdict says?" Jake asked as she clacked her fingernail against his scales. She looked up at him, confused. "Do I freak you out more or less than Veronica does?"

"The spider-lady," Rose breathed and then she lifted one of his scales as far as it would go. "Does that hurt?"

"No."

She pushed his arm away and Jake let his human hand come back. Rose immediately grabbed his arm again.

"You can't even tell that it could be anything else!"

"Part of the whole incognito thing. Easier than a mask."

Rose breezed right by his comment. "You don't even feel like a lizard!"

"Why," Jake asked flatly, "would I feel like a lizard?"

"Dragons are lizards." Rose said it like it was a well-known fact, like Jake was dumb for even having to ask to ask the question.

"I'm _not _a lizard!" Jake protested loudly – too loudly and his voice bounced back at him within the cell.

"How do you know?" she asked. "Have magical scientists ever classified dragons as a species?"

"Have Huntsclan scientists?"

"Only through observation," she admitted with a grumble. "Even dead, you're hard to catch."

"Then we can say I'm an expert on the subject and you have to agree with what I say."

"I don't have to do what you say." Rose scoffed.

Jake tugged at one of her restraints and she glared at him like he'd tugged on one of her pigtails.

"You could let me out of here and then we'd be on equal footing."

"We've been there before," Jake reminded her. "It's how we ended up here."

"You've been on equal footing with the Huntsgirl. I'm Rose."

"The Huntsgirl is part of Rose's past," Jake said, "whether you want to admit it or not."

Rose opened her mouth and then promptly shut it. The silence between them weighed on Jake and he wished for those few seconds, that he'd held his tongue and actually thought about what he was going to say. He had gotten used to her and even enjoyed being around her from time to time. Now, he had forgotten her volatility in a moment of banter. Here, she could explode, undoing everything that could be called progress from the last month or she could move past it, skipping off to a new topic like she so often did.

Instead, Rose did neither of those things. Rather she shrunk down inside of herself, her voice small. "Inside changes. I told you."

"You did," Jake said, channeling Gramps at a formal address and choosing his words with care. "What I meant was that, in order to appreciate where you are now, you have to know where you've come from."

She glanced at him and then huffed out forcefully enough to lift her bangs from her forehead.

"Have you ever done anything that you really didn't feel like it was bad or that big of a deal and then it turned out to be just like that? You know, where you've hurt somebody? But you can't take it back at all. You just have to … become something else." She glanced at him and seemed to read what was on his mind. "Not on my level. No, of course not. But, _anything_?"

"Sure," Jake said. "There's six years between Haley and me. I was mean to her when we were kids, you know, made her cry and then had to make her feel better. Stuff like that, you mean?"

"Yeah, stuff like that." She drew her knees up to her chest and looked at him, her stare prodding. "Do you think it's _really _possible to change? To be different?"

A month ago, Jake would have said no without hesitation. There was no redemption for anyone in the Clan and they got what they deserved and worse. Especially the Huntsgirl, with her bloodstained hands who looked unflinchingly into the eyes of her victims as she took their lives. Seeing her inspired more fear than the Huntsmaster himself and when they thought she had died the entire magical community and humans alike had breathed a sigh of relief and had been able to make more progress against the Huntsclan without her at their head. But, it wasn't a month ago anymore. She was sitting in front of him, something almost hopeful in her tone, needing him to say yes, that she could become someone else and that she wasn't bound by who she had been. Maybe that, in itself, was enough to set her apart from who she had been.

"Do you want to be different?"

"I asked if you thought it was possible."

"I guess," Jake said. "I think anything is _possible_ but whether or not it's actually happening is different. I didn't think you'd ever be sitting here –"

"Or that you'd enjoy our conversations," she interrupted, smiling an easy smile. "I think you like me more than you want to admit."

Jake sighed. "I hate how you get off-topic."

"Things just come to me." She fluttered her hand. "You brought me here. What did you think was going to happen?"

"I thought you were just going to be crazy, easy to get secrets from."

"Instead I'm crazy and _hard _to get secrets from. You've been good to me, Jake, so ask me one question and I'll answer it honestly."

Jake stared at her, anything that he'd ever thought of asking her fleeing his mind. That was the problem with her: he could never anticipate where their conversations would go or what she would do. From bubbles to the rose that still sat on his bedside table, to everything that came out of her mouth, he just didn't know what to do when he was around her. Maybe that was the enjoyment of it: everything else was routine and here she was, beyond assumptions.

"How would someone get into the Huntsclan headquarters?"

"_Someone _wouldn't," she said. "The Huntsmaster spent a very long time devising a new security system before the takeover. It scans your mark, it scans your fingerprints, it scans your eyes, and it swabs your DNA – all of which it has on file from every Huntsclan member. You need to pass _all _of these things in order to gain entry. Another reason that I couldn't go back to the Huntsclan – without the mark, I couldn't get in."

"There's no underground entrance?" Jake pushed. "Something open only to say, you or the Master that the average Clan member wouldn't know about?"

"Those higher up in the Clan have a private entrance open only to them but the same security measures on all of it. You need to be of the Clan to gain entry – even the bars on the windows are fingerprint enabled. Even if you had someone on the inside helping you enter, the building would still know who had opened the windows."

"So, you guys thought of everything."

"The Master did," she agreed. "Did you know that you can see magic on your DNA?"

"I did. Mom always took Haley and I to doctors appointments. Which we barely did, if we could help it. Usually, she'd have us treated by Fu. Any blood draw could have outed us." Rose was nodding along. "How many creatures did _you_ have to torture to find that out?"

"Enough. We had to make sure that the magical DNA signature was the same across species. Or, if they weren't, that we didn't miss a species or there would be a flaw in the plan. We were lucky. Otherwise, we would have to get blood from a dragon. Which, would have put me at risk. You were a worthy opponent but we also knew each other too well."

"As enemies we did." Jake pictured the Huntsquarters, the looming skyscraper appearing in his minds eye. It seemed impossible that a building that big, let alone an organization that big, didn't have some kind of shortcoming, some loophole that he could exploit from this side of things. "So, in order to really get in, I would have to have someone who I could trust to operate independently but still on our side, even while surrounded by Clan members and while they're of the Clan, which means dividing their loyalty."

"In short, you're screwed."

"I should have made the Huntsgirl fall in love with me years ago," Jake mused. "Would have saved me a lot of trouble."

"Was … Was that a joke?" Rose asked.

"Mostly."

She laughed. "I'm not falling in love with you."

"And I'm not falling in love with you."

They stared at one another until Fu called downstairs.

"Jake! Team's getting ready to leave."

"Coming!" Jake focused back on Rose. "Any words of advice?"

She shook her head. "See you in the morning."

Well, at least that bolstered his confidence as he left her and the house, leading the patrol teams out of Magic Town and into the Huntsclan's world.

**We have four more chapters to go so things are going to start ramping up! Let me know what you think!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	11. The World Was At War We Kept Dancing

Jake shook his wings and a shower of snow fell to the ground. It had been snowing all night and he was freezing, despite the fact that the fire inside of him was supposed to keep him warm. This close to Christmas, the temperatures had plummeted and the snow hadn't stopped in days. The Huntsclan's patrols had even been lighter and Jake had brought his group back in early. The visibility was hard from the air but they were all too easy to spot from the ground, their tracks left in the snow.

Jake dragged himself inside the house, wiping his hand across his forehead.

"Spud? Gramps? Fu?"

"They're gone; I'm in here," Spud called, "but I'm on my way out. Three days until Christmas and Veronica is stressed. Plus, with the weather getting colder, people need warm clothes and I'm still trying to sort through the backlog of stuff in order to find what she needs."

"Good luck."

"She promised me alcohol in exchange for overtime so we're going to have a merry Christmas after all, Jake!" Spud said cheerfully. "Hopefully, I'm passed out by nine."

"Dream big," Jake said as Spud breezed by him.

The cold air whooshed through the small house as the door clang shut. Jake peeked through the thick curtain over the door window, to make sure that no one was spying on the dragons in their human forms. But, there was no one out there except for Spud; it was his and only his footprints out there in the snow. Jake opened the door a crack and formed a snowball in his hands. He brought it inside and it slowly began to disintegrate in the warmth of the house. He carried it downstairs, opened the door of Rose's cell, and threw it. With lightning reflexes, Rose snatched it out of the air.

"Real snow!" she gasped. A light flared between her palms, surrounded the snow, and the ball reformed.

She threw it back at Jake and he caught it, holding onto it for a moment. There was no melting; whatever she had done, she had saved it.

"Is it really snowy outside?"

"It's a wall of white," Jake said. "You know I'm back early."

"Yeah." Rose caught the snowball and then she held it up and it formed into a large snowflake. "When's Christmas?"

"It's the twenty-second."

"What are you getting me for Christmas?" she asked.

"Why do you think you're getting anything for Christmas?"

"Hopeful, I guess." Rose shrugged. "I have never unwrapped a present before. The special meal on Christmas Eve and the brunch on Christmas Day was our gift."

"Well, I can't exactly go strolling around and pick something out in the city," Jake said. "Besides, why should I get you something for Christmas if you're not going to get me anything?"

Rose shook the chains around her wrists and then added, "But I _do _have something to give you for Christmas."

"A hole in the head?"

"A little faith in me, please. Come on, I've worked really hard."

"On what?"

"It's a surprise," she said, "but it won't kill you."

"All right," Jake said. "I'll see what I can come up with."

"I think it's sweet that you want me to be happy."

"Don't push your luck," Jake replied.

"I'm good for one thing," Rose said, "and that's being pushy. You don't get to where I was by being a pushover. Matter of fact, you don't get far in the Clan. You just wind up dead."

"We ever going to talk about the You-Know-Whos?" Jake asked. "Being pushy with them didn't work."

"I asked you not to bring them up."

"I guess I'm the pushy one now."

"I didn't try to push them. Matter of fact, I didn't even try to kill them." Rose raised her hands and the snowflake burst, sending a shower of snow to the ground. "Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about snow instead. Can I have more?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I can't trust you with anything," Jake said. "Who knows what you'd do?"

"You know me by now. I'm sure you do." She raised the flakes back from the ground, reforming them into a large snowflake again, which she balanced on her palm. "I don't think this is what I meant when I saw that I'd see snow again. Oh, can I go outside for Christmas?"

"Definitely not."

She draped herself dramatically across her bed. "Can I have any _fun_?"

"You're imprisoned. You tell me."

"You deserve fun," she said, "between the two of us, we could probably have a crazy night out. Can I drink on my medication from Fu? I don't know how many bottles of tequila a dragon can drink but we could find out if one would put a former Huntsgirl on her ass."

"It definitely would but we're not going on a bender for Christmas. The two of us loose in the city would get arrested on the spot. Drunken nights don't exist when the Huntsclan has such a strict curfew. You killed any fun during the takeover."

"All right, all right, point made," Rose grumbled.

"I've got to go grab your potion," Jake said, "it was too early to bring it down before."

"Think about my Christmas present on your way up!"

"Sure, sure."

(-.-)

Spud laughed and tottered in the snow, Fu doing his best to keep him upright, even though Spud had a lot of height on him. Jake kept to one side of him while Gramps did the same on the other side. Patrols had been done early, Rose had been consulted about how dead the night would be, and then the Christmas feast had begun. It had been better than the other years, Jake thought, but that might have been from the presence of Spud. Spud made home feel closer and like victory really could be on the horizon.

"I know you said you wanted to be passed out by nine," Jake said, "but I didn't think you really meant it."

"It has to be at least ten!" Spud said and then he almost fell over again.

"It is nine forty-three," Gramps said. "The town will go on celebrating for several more hours yet."

"I'm headed back to the party once we get the lush home," Fu said. "Jake? Gramps? Who's with me?"

"I will return with you," Gramps said. "I didn't get to sample everything that I wanted to. Veronica said that she would save me some more of her white cake that I enjoy so much."

"What about you, kid?"

"I'm going to stay with Spud," Jake said. "Just in case he decides to try and get himself into more trouble."

And it was Christmas and Rose in her cell was all that he'd been thinking about for the majority of the night, when he was supposed to be celebrating good times and surviving to another holiday season, the community forcing the darkness out.

At the door to the house, Jake wrestled Spud onto the couch and pulled the blankets up around him.

"Christmas is for family, Jake."

"Yeah, I know. This time of year is the hardest, especially the first one." He pulled the blankets up around Spud. "We'll be home next Christmas, Spud, I promise."

He didn't have precognition but he couldn't keep Rose in the basement for another year. Sooner or later, something was going to have to break.

"Thanks, Jake," Spud huffed, squirming into his pillow. "I gotta sleep it off."

"You do that, man, I'll be downstairs. Don't vomit on yourself."

"I'm not going to vomit."

Jake left a garbage can and a glass of water next to Spud's bed, grabbed Rose's gift from his bedroom, and descended the stairs. She had been adding decorations to the ceiling of her cell and now little faeries flew around with multicoloured tinsel, different magical creatures floating in bubbles that jingled like bells, small snowflakes created out of the snowball he'd brought her once, and a million twinkling lights.

"Merry Christmas," Jake said.

"Spud is going to have an awful headache in the morning."

"Well, that's what a hangover is," Jake said, "and, subsequently, that's your Christmas present."

Rose laughed loudly. "Well, no circumstance in you! Also, you got me a headache for Christmas? I feel bad for anyone you've ever dated."

"No," Jake said and he handed her the bag. "For Christmas, we're drinking!"

Rose peered inside, the wine bottles clanking together.

"Veronica makes really good wine. Not a wine guy but beggars can't be choosers and I couldn't ask the raid teams to hit up a liquor store on the way back – though I'm sure that some of them would."

She was smiling at him. "Thanks! And, I mean it. But, we'll have to do your present before I try some, because this is hard enough sober."

"Okay, what is this?"

Rose took a deep breath and then held up her hands, as if she were signaling someone to stop, all of her fingers spread wide. For a long time, there was nothing and Jake was on the verge of saying "oh well, you tried" when a sound like static started. There, between her hands, was a wall of fuzzy white. As Jake watched, a picture emerged. It took Jake a moment to realize that he recognized it.

It was his parents' living room. There was a tree in the corner and Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch while Haley was carrying drinks into the living room.

"This is about an hour from now," Rose said. "It's as close as I can get."

Jake could almost taste the hot chocolate that his family was drinking now. He belonged there. He should be there now. He shouldn't just be a photo on the wall behind them. He watched for a few minutes and then Haley kissed both of their parents and put on her jacket, running out to the sidewalk, where there was a boy waiting for her. They kissed and then the image faded out completely.

Jake leant back, realizing just how close he had gotten to Rose in an attempt to actually feel what his family was doing.

"His name is Conrad," Rose said and she wiped her forehead, where a thin sheen of sweat had formed. "He's going to tell Haley he loves her for the first time tonight."

"And my parents?"

"Are going to spike their hot chocolate, sit under the same blanket, and talk about you and Haley. Come morning, your dad will make breakfast while your mom and Haley sleep in."

"I should be there."

"Instead, you're here." She reached into the gift bag and pulled out a wine bottle. "Can someone really drink their pain away?"

"In my experience? It's short-lived but, yeah, we'll give it the old college try." Which was something his dad said – his dad who was full of old sayings and clichés – and it just made Jake sad to repeat the words now.

Rose either didn't notice or decided that it would be easier if she skipped over it. "Neither of us went to college."

"The Huntsclan doesn't do higher education?"

"There is never a graduation in the Huntsclan," she said. "You are always in classes."

"_Always?"_

Jake uncorked the wine using one of his dragon's talons.

"Yes. You are given a career, of course, and are expected to work once you have passed all of your lower classes, but there is always more to learn. You're never considered done. I was learning to make weapons at the time I died and I was learning astrology. I found it entertaining. The weapons _and_ the astrology," she clarified.

"Of course you did."

Jake handed her one bottle and opened one of his own. She sniffed at the opening and took a hesitant sip of it. Jake watched her face, knowing the one that he had made after trying Veronica's homemade wine for the very first time. It wasn't _that _bad but it was fruity, potent, and a bit of a system shock the first time that anyone tried it.

Rose spluttered and coughed.

"It's not quite champagne."

"No," she agreed, seeming to regain herself. "I would say that there are some differences between Cristal and Veronica."

"Well, drink up. This is the Cristal of the magical community."

"Cheers, Jake," she said, tipping her bottle toward his and they clanged the necks together. "May we both be out of here – one way or another – this time next year."

"That's been my New Year's Resolution every year since I got here."

"This is the first year that you've had me."

"And there's the ego again."

"Not unwarranted," Rose insisted. "I'm pretty spectacular, you know."

"Shut up and drink. Let's see what happens when we're white girl wasted."

"You're not a girl. Or white." Rose frowned at him. "Unless you have something to tell me. Although, pretty sure you'll always be half-Chinese."

"It's just a saying. I'm a half-Chinese, half-dragon man and I don't want to be anything else."

"Never?"

"Only you spend all of your time in alternate universes."

"I wouldn't think I was the only one who felt the need to." Rose slid down toward the foot of the bed, closer to the spot Jake had taken on the floor. "Can I ask you something?"

"Has anything _ever_ stopped you from asking me anything?"

"Is the Asian blush real?"

"Yes," Jake said, laughing despite himself. "It's the one switch I can't control."

"What?"

"Dragons have tolerance but my human side really doesn't. Sometimes, I can be done after a beer. Sometimes, I can down almost a whole bottle of hard liquor and not even feel it in the morning. I never know what's coming until I'm on my way to passing out."

"I don't want to say this but you will probably outlast me."

"Who cares?" Jake asked her. "It's Christmas Eve and even the Huntsclan is enjoying themselves. We can pass out if we want to."

"What will Spud or Fu say if you fall asleep in my cell?"

Jake shrugged. Honestly, it didn't matter. It wasn't as if anyone in the house was ignorant to just how much time he spent downstairs with her. As to what they were talking about, as to the fact that he had shared as much of himself with her as she had shared of herself with him, that the rest of the house didn't know and Jake wasn't in a rush to tell any of them. It was on a need-to-know basis and Gramps had already said that he was entrusting Rose to Jake. He had entrusted everything to Jake, who was leading now.

"You know what, I'll be right back."

"Jake, what –"

He left before she could finish her question and was back before she could get too cranky that he was gone. He put the snacks that Veronica had sent he had Spud home with on the bed between them.

"Drunks need snacks," he said.

"Or it's a last meal for me," Rose said but she took one of the cookies off the side of the tray anyway.

"You'd know if it was."

"Probably," she agreed. "Especially this near in the future. But, not a bad way to go."

"Rose, how do you think I'm going to kill you?"

"That's one of the things that I don't know," she said. "It's Christmas and we're not going to die tonight so let's be happy. Let's be _normal_. As we could ever be."

Jake tipped his bottle back again, the warmth and fuzziness of a good buzz spreading through him. It had been too long since he had just let himself go – even a little bit – and he revelled in the feeling, watching Rose alternate drinking wine and eating cookies, keeping up a running dialogue that was accented by the chimes of the bubbles over her head.

"She freaks me out but –" Rose pointed a finger at Jake for emphasis, the restraints around her wrists rattling "– the spider lady can cook."

"Have you ever really laid eyes on Veronica?"

"Sure. I tried to kill her once, caught her out and about, you know how it goes."

"Is there anyone you haven't attempted to kill?" Jake asked.

"Um, probably. It's a very big world. I haven't been on every continent. If I got to have big dreams, that would be it."

"I like that dream," Jake said. "I've never even though of travelling. With the dragon thing, it always felt like too much of a risk to go away. Especially with the main Huntsquarters right around the corner."

"Maybe you can do it," Rose said, "if we change the world again. You could travel. Keep me in mind, maybe there's an after this, and I'll feel it."

"I thought no sad talk for tonight."

She grinned. "Just a thought! It doesn't have to be a sad one. It can be enduring, after I'm gone, in a good way. You're the only one who knows Rose and not the Huntsgirl. That's a responsibility."

Jake groaned. "You've been nothing but a responsibility."

"You like me a little bit!" she said, her speech loud and bright, like someone who had nearly finished half a bottle of wine on her own. "You're getting drunk on Christmas with me and that means something!"

"No one should spend Christmas alone. Even former ruthless killers."

"I appreciate the former."

"Anything for you, Rose."

"Don't appreciate the sarcasm."

"You get what you get," Jake said.

"Then you get carols."

"_What_?"

Then the bubbles over her head were singing Christmas carols, starting off with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells, which she merrily and drunkenly sang along to.

"Just sing along and enjoy yourself," she said.

"I was going to say I was a bad singer but I've got nothing on you."

"Hey!"

Jake laughed at her outrage. "You can't think you're good at everything."

"Just most things! You know that about me."

Jake shook his head and then just watched her as she unapologetically sang along to the Christmas carols, her decorum falling apart the deeper she got into her wine bottle. The chains around her limbs rattled out of tune with the music and Jake made a split-second decision. He stood from the bed and reached out, grabbing one of her arm chains. Rose froze, her eyes tracking his every movement. Instead, he released the straps on all of her restraints and, for the first time in over a year, she stood free and in control of herself.

Rose touched her wrists and ankles, scars from previous restraints evident. She stamped her feet and shook her arms.

"I feel so weightless!" She laughed and flapped her arms. "I forgot what it felt like to not have those!"

"I'll have to put you back but, for now, merry Christmas, Rose."

She held her arms out and spun in a circle, nearly falling and crashing into a wall. She turned to face him and then she threw her arms around him. Jake nearly batted her away before he realized that it was a hug. Rose was _hugging _him. The American Dragon was being hugged by the Huntsgirl. The thoughts moved dizzily through his head and the whole scenario was just so funny. If Gramps had his way, if the Huntsmaster had his way, one of them would have been dead long before now.

"Merry Christmas, Jake," she said.

The song changed above them and Jake couldn't help but sigh.

"This is the saddest Christmas song in existence, I swear."

"_I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me …" _Rose warbled. "Why is that sad?"

"Because he doesn't actually get home for Christmas, he just dreams about going home for Christmas. It hits a little close, you know."

"I guess."

Rose still hadn't let go of him. Her face hidden against her chest, her arms around his neck, her bottle of wine still dangling from one hand. Jake's hands rested at her waist and instinct from middle school dances began to take over and they started swaying mindlessly to the music.

"But it's nice, isn't it, that Christmas can still exist in dreams? That things can still exist in dreams? It's not the same as being able to reach out and touch it but imagine if we had absolutely nothing left."

"The real thing still exists and that makes it worse," Jake argued. She moved her bottle between the two of them, offering him a drink before taking one herself. "If my parents had, say, died of old age, and the only way to remember Christmas with them was through looking back, that's one thing, but it's not."

"No," Rose agreed and she broke away from him.

She walked around the cell, to the spot in the corner close to the door where Jake usually sat. He watched her carefully but she made no attempt to touch the cell door or get out, rather, just enjoying a spot that had been previously denied to her.

"What was the best day of your life?" she asked.

The best day.

Jake stared at her blankly. A thousand moments filtered through his head, Trixie and Spud, his parents, even the peace of spreading his wings and flying above the city. But a whole day? A day that was happy from start to finish, with no worry about the routine of it? There was the day that he first transformed, the first time that he, Trixie, and Spud had been allowed to go out on their skateboards without their parents, but, again, they were just parts, bits and pieces.

"I've had a lot of good days and good times," Jake said, "but the best day? I think that was the day that I met Haley."

She had been fourteen hours old when Gramps had taken Jake to the hospital room. She had been wrinkled and big. Jake had always been short for his age and on the slight side and Haley had been a bulky infant. He had sat next to his mother in the hospital bed while his father had settled the newborn into his arms. She had dwarfed him. She was wrinkled, with black hair, and Jake hadn't thought much of her at the time but he wouldn't be who he was without his little sister. As much as he wanted to kill her majority of the time when they were growing up, she was also his motivation.

"That's sweet," Rose said.

"What's yours?"

"I don't have one. That's why I wanted to know yours. I always thought my best day would come someday."

"Did you dream of alternate universes when you were the Huntsgirl?"

"Not as much. I liked being the Huntsgirl when I was in it but I was always very aware of what I was missing. Like the drinking. Or smoking a pot." She smiled. "Or the freedom. The travelling. Making friends outside of my Clan family – not that it was easy for me to bond inside of the Clan either. Sleeping in! Every once in a while, I did dream of running away. But, there was a safety in knowing what my home was, what I was supposed to be."

Jake sat down next to her, taking a bottle of wine with him. She plucked it from his hand.

"You are turning red, you know."

"Yeah, I know. You were warned."

Rose drank again and then she waved her hand above her head. The snow began to fall on them and then it would reverse itself in order to fall all over again.

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas," she warbled, even though the bubbles were playing Jingle Bells again.

"How many times could you listen to Jingle Bells and not get sick of it?"

"During December? I'd never get sick of it. The rest of the year? A couple of times a month, if that. Winter is sacred. I've always imagined that I was born in December, even though I don't really know."

"You can make Christmas your birthday if you want to," Jake said. "There's nothing stopping you."

"That's too much greatness on one day," she said with a flip of her hair. "'Cause I'm great, you know?"

"I know."

The wine bottle slipped from her fingers, rolling away from them, a few drops of dark red liquid dripping onto the floor as it rolled away.

"We need another one!" she gasped and shoved his shoulder. "Jake! Go get it!"

"What? Your nonsense powers don't extend to levitating a botte over here?"

"Uh, let's try."

Rose stretched out her hand toward the empty bottle she'd just dropped, a look of concentration coming over her face. Instead of rolling back, the bottle exploded. As one, they turned toward each other, shielding their faces from the flying glass. Their arms were covering one another's faces and, in the warmth and darkness between their bodies, they looked at one another and laughed.

"I guess that's the one thing I can't do." She laughed.

"And because you failed, I'm expected to get up and go get the other bottle?"

"Mhm. That's exactly it," she said. "Come on, get up."

But Jake didn't want to do that either. He slumped a little bit, summoned his tail, and carefully picked up the half-full bottle he had left behind. Rose opened her hands and took the bottle.

"See, you didn't even have to get up. And put the tail away. I don't like it."

"Come on, get used to it. It's a part of me like everything else."

"I know you as two separate halves, not bits and pieces."

"That's not fair," Jake said, "because I know you as Rose and the Huntsgirl. They're not separate from each other. Hold my claws."

Rose looked down at the hand that he'd changed into a dragon's paw.

"There are smoother ways to ask to hold a girl's hand. Or try to freak her out. Whatever it is you're trying to do."

"This isn't grade school," Jake said, "and I'm just saying, you gotta accept all of me. You know, if you want me to fall in love with you."

He laughed but Rose didn't, gulping at the wine. Jake took the bottle from her, taking his own drink before she finished the bottle and he really did have to stand up to get the third one.

"I thought you said that you _weren't _going to fall in love with me."

"I'm pretty dead set against it."

"In an alternate universe, you're not."

"This is the universe, Rose, and we've only got wine."

"What's your favourite Christmas carol?"

"I don't have one."

"One that annoys you, less than everything else?" Rose asked. "You like Rudolph? Frosty the Snowman?"

"I don't like Christmas carols."

"Best of the worst," Rose insisted. "Pick something or I'm going to leave it like this."

Every bubble started screeching out a different song.

"Rose!"

"Come on! Pick one!"

"Fine! Fine! Frosty!" Jake cried and the bubbles calmed themselves into the same song.

"You just said that because I said that."

"Does it matter?"

"What if I said yes?"

"Then you would be just like I expected you to be."

Rose slumped against his side and laughed.

"Big steps for someone who didn't want to know me at all."

"You're still against my better judgement."

Frosty the Snowman ended and White Christmas picked up. Rose hummed along even though Jake thought White Christmas was sad too.

"This has probably been my best Christmas."

"You think?" Jake asked.

"Yes."

"Why? It sounds like things were much fancier at the Huntsquarters."

"They were. Ball gowns, champagne, gourmet meals. And, yet, this feels cozier. Better. Like what Christmas is supposed to be, rather than dressing up in a room full of people that you don't know and don't know you."

"I see your point," Jake said, adjusting his arm around her. "The Christmases before this one, I enjoyed being with the magical community and our Christmas celebration or even at home with Gramps and Fu afterward. Being here with Spud and relaxing with you, feels closer to home than I've been in a long time."

"You sound like mush," Rose said. "Too much wine."

"You sound like mush," Jake replied. "You've had too much wine."

"Yeah, my whole body feels fuzzy and my brain doesn't work and I kind of love it!" she shrieked happily. "This is the nice kind of out of control."

"Thank you for showing me my family," Jake said.

"I was worried about doing that," she confessed. "I couldn't see how you would react. I thought it might hurt too much or I thought that you might just be scared of what I could do and not see what was in front of you."

"No. It meant a lot to me." Jake rested his head on top of hers, feeling a warmth that came from being close to another person. "I haven't actually laid eyes on my parents in eight years. I still think of Haley as a twelve-year-old girl. But, they're going grey and she is grown-up and my whole life has been on pause. It gave me hope that I'd see them again. So, thank you."

Rose placed her hand on his but the moment their skin touched, she let out a scream. She jolted away from him, backing into the far corner. Disoriented, Jake had to pick him up from the floor, having fallen over when she'd left him.

"Rose? What?"

"I was wrong," she gasped, her face bone-white as she heaved for breath, her hand pressed over her heart.

"Wrong?" Jake pushed himself to his feet, feeling unsteady. "Wrong about?"

She stared at him. "I can see it all, Jake, and in seven days, you're going to let me die."

Jake couldn't believe it; didn't want to believe it, but she was staring at him with panic in her eyes and his ears began to ring. How was he supposed to accept that?

**So, big reveals next chapter but definitely some cuteness in this one!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	12. You're Gonna Love Me

Jake stumbled out of the cell, slamming the door behind him and half-crawling up the stairs. He wasn't going to kill her; he wasn't going to let her die! Not yet. For some reason, he felt like he wasn't ready for her to go yet. But, he also knew that he wasn't in a position to talk to her about it. He stumbled into Fu's workroom, moving independently of his thoughts. He had made a hangover cure more than enough times before the end of the world, both for himself and for Spud and Trixie. It was instant sobriety, the kind that Rose had been thrust into when she'd been burdened with her new knowledge.

He had no time to let the potion sit the way it was supposed to so he just pinched his nose and threw it back. The symptoms of drunkenness flashed through him at lightning speed. In the space of a few seconds, he had gone from drunk to hungover to sober again, although he had no sense of balance and had to crawl his way back down the stairs.

Despite the fact that he hadn't done up her restraints, Rose was exactly where he had left her, crouched in the corner, like her new knowledge was going to come and get her.

"Rose, you need to talk to me."

She raised her eyes to meet his and reached out her hand. Jake reached over and took it and immediately, he was transported. Gone was the cell and the world that he thought he had been standing in. Instead, he was in a large space, grey walls stretching from either side of him. In front of him, were Kara and Sara, alive and breathing. Jake tried to cry out to them but his voice didn't work.

"Hello, Huntsgirl. We've been waiting for you."

Jake tried to move but he was stuck.

"Waiting for me?" It was Rose's voice but it was coming from his mouth. "I tracked you here. You're at _my _mercy. The Clan is on its way."

"To capture us," Sara said dismissively. "We heard."

Kara grinned. "We know how this will end."

The words were familiar to Jake.

"Want to see?" they asked together.

Then, it was a vision within a memory, everything that he had been trying to figure out playing out in front of him. He saw himself, rescuing Rose from the human hospital, he saw them growing closer, and then the vision slowed, Kara and Sara's voices speaking over the images, as they reached the parts he had yet to see.

"You will die on New Year's Eve, Huntsgirl, you will sacrifice yourself for the magical community, because you love him and he loves you. He will let you out, walk with you to the Huntsquarters, and in you will go. While all of your Clan members are inside and celebrating, you will do what only you know how to, and destroy the Clan from the inside. It is a sacrifice you will make willingly and you can't fight destiny."

"What are you doing?" Rose's voice screamed from his throat, the vision shattering in front of him.

The Oracle Twins had begun to glow, their hands turned into claws. They reached into Rose and Jake felt their body begin to heat. He didn't have the protection of his dragon hide and he felt like it was to burn, truly, for the first time in his life. Images began to swirl in front of his eyes, showing him things that were now in his past but, to Rose, would have been her first premonitions.

Her thoughts were crying out, begging her body to fight back, even though she was frozen in place, helpless to the assault. Her mind rebelled, trying to force the Oracle Twins out, but they were overwhelming.

And, then, the world exploded and Jake felt as though he had crash-landed back into the cell with Rose.

"Do you see?" she asked. "This was why you had to find me. This is what I was wrong about. This _was_ a two-way street. I thought that you were going to just … kill me. Torture my secrets out of me and use them for yourself to take down the Clan but that's wrong. I have to do it for you because only I can."

"Rose, you've lost me again."

"Sit with me."

Jake sunk down on the floor next to her and she grabbed his hand.

"This is the Huntsclan secret. It's something that only the Huntsmaster and I know about. Not even the heads of the international branches know about it."

"Okay. I'm listening."

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. Then, she closed her eyes and admitted, in a rush, "We use magic!"

Jake was sure that he hadn't heard her right. "_What_?"

"The Huntsclan uses magic. That is why I was the right hand to the Hunstmaster, not because I was a quick learner or because I was better than everyone – I became that way – but because magic was easy for me. The precognition I got from the Oracle Twins but everything else … Everything else I could already do. We don't use magic for a lot but we don't just rely on technology to keep track of Clan members or to keep our building secure." Rose spread her hands out. "I can see my mark which means that it's nearly time. But I know that you need to adjust, think it through, tell yourself that you're not going to do it. You're not going to let me go, you're not going to let me die … But you are. And, I didn't think that they could be right but they were. I am going to walk willingly into this. There is one way to fix the suffering that I have caused and this is it."

"I'm not letting you walk out of here."

"Yes, you are," Rose said, almost calmly. "It's the right decision. This is the future that Kara and Sara left for us. We had to meet, had to become what we are, in order for this to work. They led me to you because you would lead me to the right path."

"I'm not walking you back into the Huntsclan, that's crazy!"

"Yes," Rose agreed, squeezing his hand, "but it's what we need to do and you'll see that eventually."

"This is the longest con I think you've ever run, Huntsgirl."

Jake went to pull his hand out of hers but she wouldn't let go of him, keeping her anchored to his side.

"I know you don't like it but you're going to see that it's the way to do it. We –"

"They said that I love you and you love me."

"And that was where I was wrong. I thought because of who we were, it would be cold blood. I thought that I wouldn't get my heart involved at all because a lot of the time, I forgot I had one. But, they were right. They had to be right. Because we both saw that and we wouldn't have if it wasn't there." Her grip on his hand increased and her eyes burrowed into his. "Jake, whether you are ready to feel it or not, the time has come and you need to make the right decision. I've made mine. I will fight for you and your side; I will save you, even though I know what it means for me."

Jake shook free of her hand. "Come on. I need to restrain you again."

Rose willingly followed him, sitting still as he bound her wrists and ankles again.

"Think about it, Jake. We have to do it on New Year's, when most will be inside of the Clan headquarters. I'm counting on you. Your community is counting on you."

"Don't," Jake said. "You don't know anything about the magical community."

"I know you and I'm grateful that I do. I've been human my whole life but now, with you, this is the first time I've felt it. I can't take back what the Clan has done but I can give you a future, where you can be with Haley and your parents and Trixie and Spud and they can be together. You have to let go and trust me, Jake. Easier said than done, I know but –"

Jake gathered the bottles and the remains of their Christmas snack and left the cell, slamming the door behind him. He left the remains of the evening in the kitchen and then went into his room. There, in front of the picture of his family, was the rose that she had made him. The rose that he had decided to keep in the first place and then couldn't get rid of. He sunk onto his bed, resting his elbows heavily on his knees, and hanging his head. He didn't know why it was suddenly harder to breathe. She couldn't be telling the truth. It had to be some kind of trick.

But why would she admit to the Huntsclan using magic if she was just trying to manipulate him? It was so absurd it had to be true. It was a secret that could bring the whole Clan down, which is what she said she wanted. But, she had her Clan Mark back. She had talked of returning to them, if she had the possibility. He couldn't trust that she would do right thing because she was a wild card. As stable as she claimed that Fu's drugs made her, she would always be a wild card; she would always be the Huntsgirl at the core of her.

But, if he didn't take that chance, what would change? If he did take the chance, what would change?

It kept Jake up all night, long after Gramps and Fu had come in from the party. He sat on the edge of his bed, thinking through everything that was right or wrong, what could or couldn't happen, who he really thought that Rose Dawson was. He could come up with no answers – not to the answers of whether or not to let her do it, whether or not she was trustworthy, whether or not Kara and Sara were right when they talked about feelings. Rose talked big, picking all the right words: sacrifices and love.

But when Jake took her breakfast and her morning potion a few short hours later, she didn't say a word. Jake waited for her to begin, to babble and try to convince him. Instead, she took her potion and handed him back the bottle; she ate her breakfast and made sure he got all of the dishes back. The silence unnerved him but not enough to break it. Not yet.

She watched him come and go, her eyes big and sad.

Jake put the dishes in the sink and poured soap in, just for something to do.

"That water is so _loud_, man," Spud complained. "Oh, God, I'm going to be sick."

"Hangover potion. Made some last night. First cupboard in Fu's workroom."

"Oh, the miracle cure. God, I've missed that."

"You say that until you remember how nasty it is," Jake said and then he refocused on his dishes. His conversation with Spud had come out so naturally, like he had nothing on his mind.

And Jake knew that he wasn't going to talk to anyone else about this. He knew what they would all say: that it was a chance that wasn't worth taking. It would be so easy for him to write Rose off in that way too but they didn't know her like he knew her. He wouldn't say that he loved her, despite her insistence that it would be true if it weren't already, but he knew that there was more to her than he had ever expected there to be. Gramps had said that he would follow Jake and Jake knew that this was a test, for both of them.

His thoughts tortured him for days but he was so very aware of how time was running out. And, still, she barely spoke to him. She would warn him of things that would happen on patrol but she didn't look at him and said it all in the same monotone.

The day before the deadline, Jake went to stand in front of her cell, watching her. They were both aware that he was there, even though she was acting like she hadn't noticed him at all. She was making it snow over herself and was holding one of her bubbles in her hands, making it change colours.

"If I let you back into the Clan," Jake asked, "how could you end everything?"

"Magic," Rose said. "It's embedded in all of us. It's how we find those born with the Mark, even. It's a big world. How did you think we did it?"

Jake shrugged. He'd never thought of it.

"In the Master's office, there is … a control panel, I suppose, you would call it. Half technology, half magic. I have access to it –"

"You _had _access to it. You died over a year ago."

"I _have _access to it," she repeated. "I know. I've seen it. By using it, I can wipe out everything Clan related."

"Including you."

"Including me." Rose smiled softly at him. "I'll miss you and I'm glad there's someone who knows the real me."

"Hold on, I haven't said that we're going to do this."

"Oh, sorry to assume," Rose said, "it's not like I can see the future or anything."

"You haven't spoken to me for days and you want to get snippy with me now?"

"You also haven't spoken to me for days! I didn't want you to think that I was trying to influence you in either direction. I said all that I could say. It's in your hands now."

"Is it? If you can see the future?"

"The future and I and your community are trusting you to do the right thing."

Again, she was using all the right buzz words. The community and trust and the right thing.

"We should get to the Huntsquarters before midnight tomorrow, if we're going," Rose said. "And, I'll need a Huntsclan outfit."

Of course.

Jake shook his head and stormed away from her. No, it was a bad idea. He couldn't be doing this. He couldn't set her free. Gramps and Fu and Spud would kill him! Unless, of course, they all died from his mistake. Or, she really did the right thing. The Huntsgirl doing the right thing was laughable but Jake hadn't thought of the woman downstairs as the Huntsgirl in a long time. She was Rose, through and through, the person that she had decided to be.

Jake pulled out of his phone.

**Jake: Do you still have stolen Huntsclan uniforms?**

** Trixie: A couple. Undercover op?**

** Jake: I need one. Female.**

** Trixie: Size matter?**

** Jake: Small. I need all the pieces too – mask and all.**

** Trixie: What's the plan?**

** Jake: I don't know yet. Working on a hunch. Leave it in the drop spot. I need to pick it up tonight**

** Trixie: Will do.**

Jake slid his phone back in his pocket and let out a breath, staring at the wall. It didn't mean anything. He was just leaving all of his options open.

(-.-)

Jake flipped the page in one of Fu's books. He was sure that there was nothing in there that would help him understand the Huntsgirl or the path that he was supposed to take but he felt like he was doing something to help him make up his mind. He could fully acknowledge that he was on the fence, even though he kept telling himself – firmly – that he wasn't and that there was no way that she was getting out of the dungeon.

"We are headed to Veronica's," Gramps said, crossing the kitchen. "Are you coming with us?"

"I'll be by before midnight," Jake said. "I want to finish reading this section, at least."

"What are you studying up on?"

"A hunch," Jake said. "I'll let you know if it pans out into anything."

"All right. We will see you later."

The door shut behind them and Jake left the table, watching them trudge across the snowy town square, populated with several other magical creatures on their way to New Year's celebrations. Jake's heart felt heavy as he watched them, feeling as though it might be the last time that he ever saw any of it. And, it might be. After tonight, everything was going to be different.

Jake walked away from the door, unable to look out at the community any longer. He knew what he was going to do. He had hidden the Huntsclan outfit underneath his mattress in order to make sure that it stayed out of sight in the small, crowded house. Then, he descended the steps. Rose was standing there, waiting for him. She had known all along what decision he would make, just as he had too, he supposed, it was just hard to get used to the idea.

Even now, opening the cell door and placing the robes on the end of her bed, Jake couldn't believe that he was doing this.

"I am putting my faith in you," he said. "I am putting lives in your hands. Don't make me live to regret this."

She placed her hand on his arm. "I'm not going to let you down."

Jake's hand covered her own for the briefest moment and then he lifted it away, undoing the restraints.

"Get dressed. It'll be easier to sneak you out of here if you're not wearing prisoner clothing."

Rose picked up the robes, holding them out.

"I don't like this. I left this girl behind."

"I hope so."

He watched the ground as she shed the grey prisoner uniform that she'd been outfitted in for so long, instead replacing it with the Huntsclan's robes. The robes of the Huntsclan had been changed to black after the takeover, at least, for the average Huntsclan member. The Huntsmaster still wore purple to denote his station and, the last time Jake had seen the Huntsgirl, that was what she had been wearing too. Now, she was in tight black pants, a thick overshirt that fell to her upper thighs, and she was holding the mask in her hands.

"How do I look?" she asked and he could hear the nervousness in her voice.

"Like an enemy."

He hadn't imagined that it would be hard to see Rose looking like the Huntsgirl but it was. It was just clothing but it made all the years between them coming back. It made every memory he had of fighting – and losing to – the Huntsgirl come to the forefront of his mind and he asked himself, yet again, what he thought he was doing in trusting her.

"I'm Rose," she insisted. "I am."

"We have to go," Jake said. "If we can get out of here without being caught."

"We can," Rose said. "We just have to use the entrance to the north, not the west. I know it's closer but there are more people around there."

Jake sighed. "How long have you known how to get out of here?"

"Since before I got here," Rose said. "I saw you entering and exiting a lot when I was in the human hospital. Don't worry. I have no one to tell."

"I am hand delivering you back to the Hunstmaster, don't tell me you have no one to tell."

"I won't even see him."

"Come on, before I change my mind."

He opened the cell door and Rose stepped outside of it. The fear that Jake had been trying not to feel was in full force and he took her hand and led her through the house. He knew it was probably unnecessary – she could probably find her way around without him – but it made him feel better. That little bit of contact let him know exactly where she was and that was what he needed.

In human form, they raced along the back of the houses, keeping out of pools of light. Both of them were sneaky but Jake felt like a lumbering oaf when compared to how smoothly Rose seemed to glide along the ground. There was no crunch of snow, even, under her thin shoes.

They were out into the city. As they stood on the sidewalk, Rose stopped, inhaling and exhaling.

"Fresh air! And, Jake, look!"

Snow had begun to fall. The smile that crossed her face seemed to light up her entire being and it reassured Jake. That was the Rose that he trusted. The one who loved Christmas and asked never ending questions and who had drunkenly sung Jingle Bells like it was the best thing she'd ever done.

"You did say that you were going to see it again."

"Yeah but it's different when you're in it," she said. She scuffed her feet along the sidewalk, throwing up little flurries of the snow. "Do you think snow feels different in other countries?"

"I don't know."

"You should find out. I think you owe it to yourself to find out."

She stayed close to his side, gripping his hand tightly. Jake was overwhelmed with the feeling that, soon, she would let go. And he didn't know if he was ready. It would be the end of her but, if she did what she said she would, it would be a new beginning for everyone else whose lives had been interrupted by the Huntspocalypse.

"My stomach hurts," Rose said as they neared the Huntsquarters. "Can you feel dread? Like, physically?"

"Have you never felt that before?"

"I don't think I had feelings back then. So, no."

"Yes, it's the pit in your stomach."

"And my hands are shaking."

"That's fear."

She laughed but it came out shaky. "I'm not afraid to die. I don't think. I know that I need to do this. I want to do this for everyone I've ever hurt but I'm not ready. I know I don't get to pick the time and it's not fair to make anyone suffer for longer but I'm not ready. I don't feel like I've lived yet."

They were steps away from the Huntsquarters front door when Rose stopped, pulling Jake around to face her.

"Will you miss me?" she asked.

"Yes." He didn't even have to think about the answer.

"Will you remember me?"

"I'll make sure everyone remembers that you did this for us."

There were tears in the corners of her eyes but she did her best to smile at him. "I don't care about that. I just want to make sure that _you_ remember me. As this. As the person I chose to be."

"I will."

Rose looked over her shoulder at the front door. "I never thought I'd walk back in there. I've never wanted to. I …" She hugged Jake, suddenly, and it took him a moment to relax into her arms, cuddling her tightly.

She was the only source of warmth in the cold city, slow and empty, especially for the city that never slept.

"I know that you're not ready to say it or accept it, but I need to tell you," she said. Her hands rested on his chest. "I love you. I know it. I didn't mean for it or believe it but you saw me, you understood me, and you let me in the same way. There's no one like you, Jake, and you're going to be great. You're already great. Thank you for trusting me."

Jake knew what they had left Magic Town tonight to do. He'd had warning, from the moment she had woken up in that cell, that he was going to kill her. But he had thought that he would have to do it with his own hands. He didn't think that he would let her out to kill herself. To kill herself _for _him.

"Rose …"

"Don't. I need every bit of strength that I have left to walk in there and do this. Okay? I'm going to do this."

She turned away from him but Jake couldn't let go of her hand. He knew that he had to do but just couldn't convince his fingers to loosen from hers. She turned back toward him.

"Jake, please."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. The villain has become a hero. It's more than what has ever been expected of me and I'm happy to die this person. Remember that." She was close to him again. "I'm sorry that I have to hurt you. I wasn't, when I first arrived to the cell, when I knew you'd be in pain because of me because I didn't understand what that pain meant. I wasn't all the way different. Be happy."

The snow was falling more forcefully now and Jake knew it was time but he had his own ball of dread, sitting in his stomach. He didn't want this to be the right thing to do.

"Can I ask you for one more thing?" she whispered.

"Yes."

She was going to die for them. Jake would answer any question she had left.

"There's one thing I haven't done yet that I can do. That I want to do. With you."

"What's that?"

"I've never kissed anyone."

It would hurt more in the long run but Jake didn't have it in him to deny her. He put his hand against her waist, drawing her closer. He kept his eyes on her face, away from the Huntsclan uniform, tuning out the scars on her face to look at her bright blue eyes, her pink lips. He hadn't kissed anyone in over eight years. He remembered the feeling of anticipation, the first brush of lips against those of someone they liked. But when he bent his head to Rose's and kissed her, he felt it. He felt everything that he hadn't wanted to since she first insisted that he was going to fall in love with her. He was overwhelmed by her, by the way his heart thumped and hammered, his veins filling with adrenaline. He couldn't let her go now.

But she separated from him, openly crying now.

"Rose –"

"Don't –"

Jake pulled the amulet from over his neck. "I don't know if it'll help but it'll help me to know you have it. It's for protection."

Rose cradled the amulet in her palm and then slipped it over her head, tucking it inside of her shirt.

"Thank you. And, get away from the building. Several blocks at least. Protect yourself!"

She turned her back on him, hurrying away before he could say anything else to try and make her stay. She pulled on her mask as she went but when she turned around, just outside the Huntsquarters doors, Jake could tell that it was not the Huntsgirl, just by the softness around her eyes. She waved him away and then she activated the door sensors.

When she was inside, out of sight and out of his control, Jake transformed, taking high into the air and alighting onto another skyscraper, one that kept the Huntsquarters in his direct line of sight. He crouched there as the night wind whistled around him.

Had Gramps noticed they were gone yet? Had he noticed enough to guess at what Jake had done or did he think that the Huntsgirl had gained control and escaped on her own?

Then, there was a crack, splitting the night, shaking the ground, crashing into the New Year's Eve parties.

The Huntsquarters was falling, bending in on itself. The flags that carried their symbol seemed to spontaneously burn themselves. Rose had succeeded; the Huntsclan was disintegrating before his very eyes. With Rose inside. She was powerful but no match for a collapsing building.

Her name had left his lips, the scream scorching his throat. He beelined for the rubble, hearing the sound of sirens coming. There would be police, there would be fire fighters, there would be paramedics. But Jake knew that there would be nothing to find. Rose had done her job properly, just as she always did, just as he knew that she would.

It didn't stop him from alighting on top of the rubble, starting to pull large chunks of building away from one another, too heated for any one else to touch. He had no other thought than to get to her, to find some kind of proof that she was in there.

"Jacob."

At his grandfather's voice, everything inside of Jake's voice stopped. He turned to face the blue dragon, Fu sitting on his back.

"Jake, come on." Gramps offered him a hand. "She's not there."

"Gramps, I … I …"

"I know. And you made the hardest decision of all. She and I are both proud of you."

Jake could feel the tears coming but he was determined not to cry. Once he cried, once he felt it, then it was all real. The love that he hadn't been able to truly acknowledge while she had still been standing in front of him and the loss that he would have to carry with him.

Jake let his grandfather lead him again, through the skies.

"Spud is headed home to Trixie," Fu said. "I thought you'd want to know that."

"Thank you."

Rose had given everyone else their happiness back, without ever having a chance to experience it herself.

Gramps didn't take Jake back to Magic Town, instead, they were on a street that Jake had been convinced that he would never walk again. They were standing in front of the door to his parents' home and Jake knew that they were inside. He was only standing here because of her and he couldn't stop the tears.

"Transform, Jake."

Jake let his dragon persona give way but he felt like the world was blurring around him. Gramps was wrong; he was not ready to lead. He was not ready for the weight of making the choices and having the consequences sit on his shoulders. He'd let her die. For the greater good but she was still dead.

"Susan!" Gramps called, Jake stumbling into the house behind him.

"Dad?" There were the sounds of footsteps and then Jake saw his mother. "Jake! _Jon! Jon! It's Jake!"_

Jake fell forward, collapsing into his mother. He had gotten bulkier, stronger, in the time that they had spent apart, but she held him.

"Oh, Jake," she breathed, petting his hair. "You're home, you're okay, it's all okay now."

The tears rolled down his cheeks unapologetically. His heart hurt; his whole being hurt.

"I've got you, Jake."

"Jake!"

His father's arms were around him too.

"Welcome home!"

Home. It was the only place that he had dreamt of being for the past eight years and now that he was here, he wasn't thinking of the small changes that had occurred in his time away, he wasn't thinking of the fact that he was back with his parents and the missing them was over, he wasn't thinking that peace was back again and he could live. He was thinking about the sidewalk, the first and last kiss with the Rose and all of the things that he should have said or done – the things he should have been strong enough to tell her and things he might have done different so that she could be here now. There had to have been a different way and, someday, whether it be tomorrow or a decade away, he would think of it, and it would be far too late.

"Haley!" Dad was yelling. "Haley! Your grandfather and brother are home!"

"Come on, Jake," his mother was whispering in his ear. "Let's go to the couch. You can tell me all about it when you're ready."

"I missed you so much," Jake said. It was the only thing that he could think to tell her. Everything else was too much, too fresh, to lay out bare on the floor like that. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Jake. And I missed you too, so much."

They had just sat when Haley came barreling into the room. Like she was still a child, she leapt into his lap.

"You're back! Is it over, Jake?"

"It's over," he promised. "The Huntsclan is gone. They're all _gone_."

"But, how?" Haley asked. The first of many to ask, Jake was sure, but, at least this time, he didn't have to answer.

"Haley," Gramps said, "let Jake rest. There will be time for explanations later."

Haley kissed Jake's cheek and then she went to hug Gramps. Jake curled up, his head on his mother's shoulder while his father took the spot next to him.

Jake closed his eyes.

He was home. It was over. He should be happy.

But he wasn't.

**And so the prophecy has come to pass. Of course, Rose knew all along and even though she warned him, our poor Jake. Two chapters left, guys!**

**There's a song that reminds me specifically of this chapter and that's _Skin _by Rag'N'Bone Man. I listened to it a lot while I was thinking of and writing this chapter.**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	13. Some Things Last A Long Time

The world, despite Jake's best hopes, didn't stop. All he wanted to do was sit on the couch with his parents. He wanted to feel the peace of being a child again, with his mother's cooking and his father's off-key singing as he cleaned around the house. But, work was never done and suffering never seemed to end either.

Countries around the world were beginning to rebuild the governments and there were requests out from old elected officials for the dragons to come in and weigh in on future proceedings and they would decide what to do with magical creatures together. Jake knew it was his duty to go and that he was the one that had to have the conversation, even though Gramps was going to go with him. Gramps had bought him at least a two week stay but was over every day for them to make plans, see what they should bargain for, and what they thought the humans might try to do with them. It was exhausting but Jake sat there.

And, then there was Trixie.

Not every Huntsclan member had been inside of the Huntsquarters when Rose had gone in but, like the Huntsclan flags and every other artifact of theirs, they had spontaneously combusted, as if they had never existed in the first place. Trixie had been fighting one of them when it happened. She had been injured and Spud had to rush her to the hospital when he found her again.

And that was when the girl and the pain that Rose had told them to expect had become known.

Because Trixie had been pregnant, losing the baby. She hadn't known that she was carrying it and she hadn't been far enough along yet to tell the sex but Jake knew. He hadn't seen Spud or Trixie yet, Spud warning Jake that Trixie wasn't ready for visitors, and so he hadn't the chance to tell them. He had to but he was sure it would hurt. Like everything hurt.

"Jake!"

"I'm … I'm not listening at all, Gramps, sorry." Jake rubbed his face. "I'm trying but I feel … burdened. I feel like just sitting here on this couch is a burden."

"Go to my house," Gramps ordered, Fu tossing the keys to Jake. "Change of scenery. Mope on that couch for a while. Just get some fresh air. We will try again tomorrow."

Jake bounced the keys on his palm.

"I –"

"Take your skateboard," Fu suggested. "You're not trapped inside anymore! You can be human!"

Human. Right. Jake went to his room, picking up his skateboard from the corner where it had been left years ago. His room had been just as he left it too – drawers hanging open from how hurriedly he'd packed, a picture of his high school girlfriend stuck to the mirror, school assignments on his desk. Jake hadn't believed that he had experienced any inside changes, as Rose had called them, but he would not have recognized the eighteen-year-old kid who had fled this room and that eighteen-year-old kid wouldn't recognize him either. He was sure that there were untouched pots of hair dye in the desk even though he'd let go of the green in his hair when he'd run away. There was no point in maintaining it underground. He had grown hard on the inside. He had killed – as a hero but it was still death. The heartache of missing his family and the years of his youth that he'd given up had hardened him on the inside, as much as he'd wanted to believe otherwise. Rose had gotten it right when she'd said that he used to have more of a sense of humour. He used to laugh and enjoy and now he had to relearn how to do those things.

It was what she would have wanted for him. She had asked him to live and he was going to try to.

He carried his skateboard downstairs, checking in the kitchen where Gramps was sitting with Susan.

"Thanks, Gramps."

"Enjoy the time on your own," Gramps said. "Take as much as you need."

Jake wasn't sure he wanted time but he didn't want to be accused of not trying either. He took meandered over the cold sidewalks, in no rush to be anywhere but not really enjoying the time out of his house either. It hadn't snowed again since Rose had been gone, leaving the sidewalks salt-encrusted, icy in places, but clear. Jake couldn't help but think of how disappointed she would be. It was a new year, her time of rebirth, and it hadn't even snowed.

Jake let himself into the shop. Mom and Dad had kept it clean while he and Gramps had been gone but there was still a smell of neglect about it. In his memories, the shop was always full of smells coming from the back room. Fu usually had at least two potions brewing at a time, herbs drying, and old books with a fragrance all their own open and on the go. It didn't always make a pleasant smell but it was always a memorable scent.

Jake climbed the stairs and into Gramps' apartment. Same old furniture, newly cleaned, new food in the cupboards, but the same old view.

In Gramps' house, time really had stopped. He could imagine walking into the spare bedroom, crashing like he used to after long nights of dragon duties. He always had to come to Gramps first and give a mission report on what had happened and, sometimes, it was too much effort to try and get himself home. Jake walked down the hall and opened the door, quickly, as if he might actually catch a glimpse of who he used to be behind the door.

But there was nothing.

He heard the sound of the door to the apartment opening.

"Gramps? Fu?" Jake called out, hearing nothing but silence.

He hoped, for an endless second as he walked down the short hall, that it was Rose. That there had been another trick up her sleeve and she had figured out how to survive. But, there was Spud, pulling his headphones out of his ears, standing in the kitchen.

"Hey, Haley said I'd find you here."

"What's up? How's Trixie?"

"Dealing. We're dealing. She's with her mom tonight. Apparently, my face was too much for her. This is what the Huntsgirl meant, right? When she talked about suffering?"

"We better hope so. I can't imagine what's left to go through."

"Yeah." Spud drummed his fingers on the table top. "You made me a promise and I'm here to collect."

"A promise? For what?"

Spud held up a small baggie, several joints inside. "Rolled them before I came over. You said I'd get to sit on a couch and smoke weed again."

"I love you, Spud."

"I love you too, man."

It really did feel like high school as he and Spud collapsed on the couch, sharing a lighter between them. It was like Trixie was going to come in any minute, having drawn the short stick for the munchies run, and taking the spot on the end of the couch next to Spud. Except Trixie wasn't coming. She was in the hospital; she would be fine but she wasn't going to be the same again. It was depressing but he kept smoking until nothing seemed as depressing as it had when he had sat down. He let go of anything holding him back, letting himself float away, the easy presence of Spud keeping him just grounded enough to not lose himself in the recent past and the sound of Rose's voice that always echoed in the back of his mind.

(-.-)

Jake sorted more old clothes into a bin for donation. It was something, at least, that he could do and felt like he could handle. He was going to be staying with his parents' for the foreseeable future. The thought of moving out and getting his own apartment, which had filled most of his waking hours from the age he was sixteen to when the world fell, no longer held an allure. He wanted to be home and he knew that they wanted him there.

There was a knock at his door.

"Come in."

Haley shut the door behind her, flopping down on the bed that still had the same red comforter on it.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I'm getting ready to go back to school," she said. "Jake, what are you going to do now that you're back?"

"Gramps and I have to sort out this government thing and then … it'll depend on that. We might have to learn how to hide the magical community in plain sight all over again if they go Huntsclan on us. If they don't and we can live out in the open, well, that'll be the biggest change of all."

"But, you're going to stay, right?"

"Right. Why?"

"I heard Gramps tell Mom, about the Huntsgirl."

"Rose," Jake corrected her. "Her name was Rose."

"All right. I just worried about you. Did you really love her?"

"Yeah. Not that I … was ever able to tell her. You tell Conrad you loved him back?"

"How do you know about him!? I haven't even introduced him to Mom and Dad yet!"

"Brother's intuition."

"Meaning you were spying on me."

"Indirectly," Jake said.

"I didn't," Haley said. "Tell him. I didn't know if I was ready."

"I didn't think I was ready either but then I didn't have any time left." Jake glanced up at the rose that Rose had created from him; it had still been alive, on his bedside table where he'd left it, the day that he'd returned to Magic Town.

He had stood in the square next to Gramps, the day after the Huntsquarters had fallen. It was the duty and he'd forced himself to go, even though he was the most miserable he'd ever been. He had urged them all to stay inside, that the dragons were going to start work with the human government as soon as possible to find a place for them in the new world order, but that they could promise nothing if the creatures left Magic Town.

Then, Jake had gone back to the house that he had shared with Gramps to pack up his things. He packed up his room of the few belongings, hiding the rose in a bowl so that nothing would happen to it. He had done all that he could do before to get rid of it and now all he wanted to do was protect it. Who knew if it would reform, now that she was gone?

He had checked the cell but nothing remained of her bubbles or her Christmas decorations, or even the snow that he'd brought inside for her. It was empty, impersonal. The only thing that remained of her was the mess that her blankets were in and the prisoner's uniform on the floor. She hadn't been tidy.

Jake had turned to go quickly, unable to face the memory of her, and then he'd spotted the wine stains on the floor. The night that was supposed to be about letting go and having fun and, instead, it had turned into simply letting go. He'd knelt on the floor and touched the wine stains like they were sacred.

"It's different," Haley insisted, pulling Jake back into the present. "I have time with him. The peace is back and I can't tell him something that I'm not sure of."

"No, you can't," Jake agreed. "But, you can make the decision to open yourself up to feeling that way. That was the part that I couldn't do and maybe things would have been different if I had at least thought about the possibility of it."

He understood why he hadn't been able to do it but he hated his past self for not being able to. What had he missed out on? What could they have been?

"I guess so," Haley said, but then she quickly changed the subject, "Have you seen Trixie yet?"

"No. She texted me and asked me to go in for visiting hours today so that's where I'll be headed this afternoon."

Haley rested her head against her pillows. "I'm glad you're back."

"Me too."

"I would hear Mom and Dad talking, about how bad it was, about how they didn't think you'd make it. You got hurt, a few years ago and the Huntsclan news showed that clip of you and the Huntsgirl on repeat for what felt like years. They thought you died."

"I didn't, Haley, and you don't ever have to worry about me. I made it through and I'm going to keep doing that."

"I hope you're right," she said.

"I got to leave for visiting hours. Love you, I'll be back in a bit."

"Gramps said he's coming by at seven for your meeting!" Haley called after him but Jake pretended not to hear.

He caught a bus over to the hospital, following the instructions that Trixie had texted to her room.

"Jakey!" she said as he walked in the room. "Hey!"

"Hey," Jake said. "How are you feeling?"

"Annoyed," Trixie said, sounding the same as ever. "I want out of here but they said I need at least two more days and then I should be fine to leave."

"That's not so long," Spud said, in a tired voice, as though he'd been reminding Trixie of this for a long time. He probably had been.

"I want to go home," Trixie said, "but my doctor is kind of a hard-ass. She won't let me argue it."

"An immovable object meets an unstoppable force," Jake said, settling into the seat next to her.

"That was what going up against the Clan felt like," Trixie said, "but you did it."

"We won but it's not as if I did it single-handedly. I know Spud told you what happened."

"He did," Trixie said, "I jut wanted to hear from you that it was true."

"It's true," Jake said, "and she told me something about you, a while ago, and it's probably going to hurt for me to say it but I can't know without you knowing too."

Trixie and Spud glanced at each other and their hands folded together as one, which just made Jake's heart hurt. It wasn't fair and he hoped that it would fade soon. They deserved to be happy.

"She knew this was going to happen. She didn't know how or when or I know she would have tried to stop it but she did tell me that the baby would have been a girl."

They were quiet for a minute and then Trixie sighed.

"I don't what to say to that so let's … let's talk about something else," she said.

"Sure," Jake agreed. "Done any wedding planning yet?"

"Spud's been doing it off and on for the past couple of years –"

"– You've been helping!" Spud cried.

"He's such a mushy groom."

Jake relaxed into the uncomfortable hospital chair as much as he possibly could. This was what he had been wanting, normalcy, with his best friends. High school was gone and they'd both cut their hair and grown into themselves while he was gone, but they were still the trio that they had always been. Trixie's and Spud's relationship wasn't affecting how they felt when they were together and friends.

"I heard you and Spud lit up without me! First smoke post apocalypse and I'm in the hospital!"

"There will be other times," Jake promised. "We couldn't exactly smuggle a joint in here for you."

"It could get me kicked out and then I could go home," Trixie said.

Spud shook his head. "Nope, you have to get all healed first. I'm not letting you boss me around because your insert-body-part-here hurts."

"I wouldn't!"

"You would."

Jake spent the afternoon, catching up on things that weren't appropriate for Dragon's Wing reports. They didn't talk about why Trixie was in the hospital and they didn't ask any questions about Rose. They were friends. It was just them. It was all that there needed to be until the clock hit six-thirty.

"Gramps needs me at seven. We have to finalize our plans for the new human government. He'll be pissed if I'm late."

"Some things never change," Trixie said with a grin.

"Surprisingly," Spud said, "he's not a nightmare to live with."

"Nah, the nightmare to live with his Fu," Jake said. "All right, I'll see you guys later."

Jake stepped into the elevator with two nurses, thinking that it was going down but, instead, he went three floors up. The doors opened and they stepped off silently but, just before the doors closed, Jake heard something.

A chime.

He jammed his hand between the doors and stepped off onto the floor. Rose had been dead for nine days and he knew that people heard the sounds of their lost ones after they'd gone, sometimes for years after they'd died. But, Jake had to know if it was his brain, manufacturing the sound of the chime her magical bubbles made or … Or, what? There was no or what. There were no survivors from the Huntsquarters ruins. There hadn't even been any bodies. Everything had been incinerated, vanished, as if the Huntsclan had never even existed at all. Rose was branded with the Huntsmark. Things had to have ended the same way for her, even though it killed Jake to think about it.

Still, he moved through the hall, going quickly lest someone realize that he didn't belong there. He checked into every room as he went by but in every bed, there was someone that wasn't her. Jake didn't know what he thought was going to happen. He didn't even know what floor he was on. He turned into one of the last rooms.

"Hi, visiting hours are almost over," the nurse inside said cheerfully.

"Oh, that's all right. I was just –"

Breathless. Thoughtless. Unable to move. Because there she was, laying on the bed.

"That's my ... my Rose," Jake said. "She's alive!"

"Rose?" the nurse said skeptically, pursing her lips. "Sir, do you know this woman?"

"Yes," Jake said, his mind scrambling. They wouldn't just tell _anyone _her medical condition. "She's my wife."

"Your wife?" the nurse said.

"Her name is Rose Dawson-Long," Jake said, feeling like he had something. "She's twenty-six years old. The old burn scars are from a fire when she was a teenager; her parents died that night. She was the only one who escaped. She was walking home from a New Year's party – I had to work – and then the Clan fell. I called everyone but no one seemed to know where she was. No hospital at all and I thought she'd died."

Jake covered his mouth with his hand, struggling for a deep proper breath. He felt the tears in his eyes, staring down at Rose, with her eyes closed, her hands and arms bandaged and laying at her side.

"Please," he said, "what's happened to her? Is she going to be all right?"

"We don't know what happened to her," the nurse said. "She was left in our ambulance bay on the morning of the second. She sustained serious damage to her hands, arms, and chest. There may be some nerve damage in her hands and she'll require physical therapy once they heal, if she ever comes out of her coma."

"Do you know if she will?"

"You'll have to speak to a doctor about that," the nurse said, "I can only give you the facts of the chart."

"Can I sit with her?" Jake asked. "Please? I know you said visiting hours were almost over but …"

"I'm going to have to call the police," the nurse said, "they're going to want to know that you're telling the truth. She's listed as a Jane Doe, for now."

"Rose," Jake said, sitting in the chair next to her. "Rose, I'm here and, somehow, you're still here. So, please, come back to me."

He rested his hand against her leg, watching her face as the nurse left to make her phone call. Rose's face didn't move, her eyes didn't flicker, but Jake knew, deep down, that she had to be in there. She didn't defeat death again to lay in a bed, in a coma, for the rest of her life. She was here for a reason. She was here because she had earnt her second chance and she was going to use it to live.

But, first, Jake had to get her out of here, before anyone removed the bandage on her arm and saw the Huntsmark in the midst of her scars and new wounds.

He lifted his phone to his ear. "Fu, hey, it's me. Listen, I need your help."

He was going to take Rose home.

(-.-)

Jake watched from the doorway as Fu finished hooking up the last monitor. Rose was lying in his childhood bedroom, it having been converted to a temporary hospital room. He had needed to keep her closer. Gramps had been concerned, once again, that she would wake up and not know who she was and they would be back to square one. She could wake up and think it was after Kara's and Sara's attack. Basically, she could still be a danger. Jake could deal with square one, as long as she woke up.

It was Fu that had been on his side, recognizing the need to keep her close for her own safety as well as the safety of everyone else. She wasn't supposed to exist anymore; the Huntsclan was supposed to be gone. They were now hiding her from the government, from prosecution for the acts that she had committed as the Huntsgirl.

His parents had not been overly excited about housing her and Haley had almost opened her mouth the oppose but when Gramps had suggested that he take Rose to the shop instead and put her in the spare room, Mom had very quickly figured out that Jake would be following Rose and decided that she could stay in the house. Jake had restrained her to the bed once more and, now, there was nothing left to do but wait.

They kept her warm and comfortable. Fu, with the aid magical healers, inserted human IVs and administered magical medicine. There was nothing that Fu, or anyone, could do to wake her from the coma.

"Either she'll wake up when she's ready or she won't wake up at all," Fu said. "There's no way that we can tell and no way that we can force her out of it. Sorry, kid, but we've done all we can. We have to wait on her now."

But that was the hardest part. Jake stayed by her bedside the majority of the day, under the guise of working at the desk in his room. He laid out potential plans for governments, made lists of the leaders that were campaigning for election post-Huntsclan. He looked over reports from dragons and magical creatures from other countries so that they were all presenting a united front and hopes for the magical creatures globally. Jake really did try and accomplish some things during the day but mostly he just talked at Rose.

He told how he'd missed her, he told her that he was glad that she was here, he told her of the places that they would travel when she woke up. She'd wake up free, beholden to no master, and Jake was worried that she would run from him, gone away to experience the life that she'd never had. A bond like theirs was real, though, and Jake had to believe that she would wake up and know him, she would wake up and remember their kiss, she would wake up and they would be okay. Period. End of story. Happily ever after.

A week passed and she didn't wake up.

Trixie came home from the hospital and Jake helped her and Spud organize the apartment that they were going to share. He carried furniture with one hand and held his cell phone with the other, in case anyone called with a change in Rose's condition. He helped his mother with dinner, just like he had wanted to do while he was gone. He interrupted Haley's homework and phone calls to her boyfriend. He let his life go on but he felt just as trapped as he had in Magic Town. He didn't want to leave the house, even though now he could. He would never forgive himself if he was gone when she woke or if she died, honestly and truly this time, he wouldn't forgive himself if he hadn't been by her side.

Another week passed.

There had been no change in Rose but there was a great change coming over the house. Chinese New Year was just a day away and there were lanterns and paper cuttings all over the house, more crackers than they could ever want on the counters, door couplets posted on the entryway. His mother had been busy in the kitchen, preparing the same dishes that she did every year. Jake and Haley joined her, Dad doing his best to stay out of the way since he had ruined more than one thing in the past, entertaining himself by decorating and making sure that it was obvious anywhere that it was the year of the Rat.

"Are Spud and Trixie coming this year?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, Trixie said that she wasn't going to let anything stand between her and your pork dumplings," Jake said. "What about you, Haley? Inviting anyone?"

"No because Fu's going to be here and I'm not really in the mood to explain the talking dog. Oh, and it looks like we're holding someone in your bedroom for medical experiments. This family is just a lot," Haley said. "So, no, friends are only allowed over on normal nights."

"Haley," Mom said, "We're going to have no oranges left if you keep eating them like that!"

"Gramps eats them like they're Skittles," Haley said defensively. "I have to get eat them while they're here!"

"They're oranges! There's more where that came from!"

"Then, why can't I eat them?"

"Because I don't have time to go and get more."

"I probably do. Or Jake."

"Haley!"

Jake grinned to himself, measuring out the marinade for the chicken, happy to be eavesdropping and not involved.

"Hey, Jake," Haley said, "want an orange slice?"

"Not getting involved."

"They're really good."

Jake didn't even have to look at his mother's face. "No way."

She laughed and offered one to Mom, who took it between her teeth. It was an almost perfect moment, weighted down only by the thought of Rose upstairs, locked in her own mind, missing it all.

Jake went up to visit her before bed.

"I told you what Chinese New Year was like in my house," Jake said, resting against the wall, her feet inches from his thigh. "I think that you'd really like to be part of the feast tomorrow. It's no Huntsclan gourmet chef but you'd probably like it better. I think you'd know that it was made by love and years of experience with the same dishes. I know you'd appreciate the tradition and I can imagine you asking a hundred questions, just like you do. Gramps or Mom would go to answer and then Dad would pipe up. He's done so much reading and research that sometimes I think he forgets that he's not actually Chinese. He likes to show off. I think you'd get along with him because you're both always wanting to know more."

Jake sighed and stared at her still features.

"I think you're in there. I think you knew I was in that hospital and you got my attention with that sound. I _know _you want to live, Rose, you said you did, and I want you to live to. I want you to come back to me because I have something I want to say to you and those days I thought that you were really gone, all I could think about was the last time I saw you. I wish I had said it. I know that you knew I felt it but I wish I had known. I wish I hadn't been so afraid but you're intimidating, even as Rose Dawson. In a different way from the Huntsgirl. You were open and I didn't even realize that I'd been closed."

Jake rubbed her leg, hoping that she could hear him. Hoping that she would open her eyes and be able to respond to anything he said.

"All right. I'll see you in the morning for physical therapy."

Jake pushed himself off the bed and kissed her forehead.

He walked out, like he did every night, with hope that the morning would be different. If he lost her again now, after regaining her, he knew that he would never recover.

**So, one chapter left, guys!**

**If you like my writing, I've had another ADJL story in the works. I've had it said to me that this fandom is dead and there's no purpose in writing this story and … I don't think that's true (and also it's really rude to say). I see those of you who review and favourite and, honestly, I'm writing these now because these are the stories that have been occupying me. I would have written them anyway but I am so glad that you are here for me to share them with! Anyway, point is, when **_**Gods & Monsters **_**is over, **_**Operation Defect **_**will take over its Thursday spot!**

**Thanks for reading and enjoying with me and I'll see you next chapter!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


	14. Happiness Is A Butterfly

Jake braided Rose's hair after Haley and one of the faerie healers, Igraine, had carefully bathed, redressed her, and returned her to bed after Jake had gone through the physical therapy with her to keep her from muscles from atrophying. Rose didn't react to any of the attention.

"If this was a fairy tale," he murmured under his breath. "Do you think that's an alternate universe for us, Rose? Are you the princess and I'm the dragon assigned to your tower? Maybe you're the maidservant who falls in love with the prince? Maybe … Who am I kidding? I'm already out of ideas. You were better at it."

He tied off the end of her braid and then laid it over her shoulder, moving the collar of her shirt out of the way to look at her neck.

She'd had no personal effects from the hospital – Jake had checked. She had arrived wearing a tattered black shirt and pants with no shoes – unrecognizable as a Huntsclan uniform. There had been no mask and no amulet. After the first time that Haley had helped bath her, however, the mystery had been solved and Jake believed that was why she was still with him now. Amongst the map of scars with no rhyme or reason to them, there was a very clear pattern that looped around her neck, falling midway to her chest, just as the necklace would have rested on her.

His amulet had protected her life but had it protected her mind? The doctors had detected brain activity; there was reason to believe that she was still in there. But, if that was true, why didn't she come back? What was holding her inside?

"You can smell the cooking from downstairs," Jake said. "That's more than enough reason for you to open your eyes today. Trixie and Spud are here and I think they'd really like to meet you. The Rose version of you that I keep telling them about."

Jake squeezed her hand but she didn't squeeze back.

"We have to finalize our plan. We have a meeting with the current temporary president – who was our last president but re-elections were coming up at the time of the Hunts-pocalypse, I don't know if you remember that – anyway, we have a meeting with him on Monday. I have to have everything ready and organized. Which, isn't my problem, I don't think. I've got a pit in my stomach, dread, right, about being in a building full of humans in my dragon form. Will they try to kill me? Don't know. But prior experience says yes." He poked her leg. "I have you to thank for that."

It occurred to him that he was rambling like Rose used to, sitting on her bed in the cell and chattering away at him. He had listened to every word that she'd said, even when he'd been feeding himself the excuse that she could be giving something away in her ramblings. She never had, not anything useful and, still, he'd listened.

"I want to hear your voice again," he whispered, taking her hand in his. "_Please_."

He'd been trying not to cry but he was constantly losing that battle with himself. Mostly at night, lying on the couch, remembering why he wasn't in bed, thinking of the sidewalk outside of the Huntsquarters, thinking about the last time that he'd heard her voice. She had been so alive as she'd walked to her death. But there was no begging or pleading that could be done or medication that he could give her.

"Jake!" Haley shouted. "Dad wants you to help set the table!"

He kissed Rose's forehead and descended the stairs, helping Haley set the table and listening to his parents' chattering in the kitchen. Just like the little things used to trip him up when he was missing home, the little things tripped him up when he was here too. Like how he thought he'd remembered everything perfectly but small details had become lost to memory and now he was being reminded of the smells and sounds and sights that had been forgotten. He wondered if that would happen with Rose too, if she didn't wake up. What would he forget? What would he remember?

Gramps was the first to arrive, Fu in tow. Fu removed his leash the second they were inside, hiding it underneath of shoes so that he wouldn't have had to look at it.

"I am a good dog!" he cried. "I don't nose around; I follow the old man at his heel just like if I had a leash on and still! Still they want me to wear a leash! I've forgotten more than they will ever know."

"Well, maybe if you _told _them that, Fu," Haley said.

"Perhaps, under a new government that recognizes magical creatures, you will be able to tell them so, Fu Dog," Gramps said.

"Well, that can't come fast enough. It's so degrading. It's like I'm a –"

"Dog?" Jake suggested. "Because I have news for you."

"I'll remember that," Fu said, pointing a paw in his direction. As if Jake would ever take a threat from Fu serious, despite what he knew Fu could do.

"Jake!" Trixie called, opening the front door. "We're here!"

"Good!" Mom shouted from the kitchen. "Because everything is done. Everyone, grab a seat."

They organized themselves around the kitchen table that Haley and Dad had put an extra leaf in that morning. Jake was wedged between Haley and Mom; Gramps and Dad sitting at the heads of the table. It was Spud who had drawn the short straw and was crammed in the back corner by the wall, between Spud and Gramps.

The table groaned with the amount of food that had been piled there but that wasn't an issue for anyone. It was a meal that was anticipated for the year to come and it quickly disappeared between the group.

Haley and Gramps were quickly involved in a spirited conversation about politics, something that Jake quickly turned out. Today was not a day for work talk. Today, was his true holiday, to celebrate with his family. Mom was asking Trixie about her new job and what she was going to do now that Dragon's Wing was coming to an end.

"If it is," Trixie was quick to say. "We don't know what will happen with magical creatures or what kind of restrictions will be put on them. There could be the need for a whole new kind of resistance."

"Yeah, the letter writing kind," Spud said. "Are you going to go to law school next?"

"Maybe! Why the hell not?"

"I like seeing you and law school takes up a ridiculous amount of time!"

"Whatever," Trixie said. "You're dumb but not forget what I look like dumb."

Jake nearly choked on his chicken.

"She loves me, Jake, really. I promise, she did agree to marry me."

"Ring and all," Trixie said, flashing her hand briefly. "And, now that you're back, we can finally pick a date for the wedding."

"You really didn't have to hold out for me," Jake said.

"We couldn't have gotten married in a world like that," Trixie said firmly. "I refused to."

"Not that I put up much of an argument," Spud admitted. "How could I?"

"What," Haley said loudly, interrupting all conversation as she pointed upward, "is _that_?"

Jake looked up. There, bobbing along the ceiling, was a bubble, softly changing from one colour to the next. The second he laid eyes on it, it popped, chiming like jingle bells.

Like it was the start gun for a race, Jake threw his chair back, not caring as it tipped.

"Kid!" Fu shouted, "wait for me!"

Jake couldn't have waited for anything. He sprouted wings just to lift him up the stairs in one gust rather than running up the stairs. He fumbled into his room and then stared at her, sitting up, studying the restraints around her wrists. Every worry that he'd had and heard about her not waking up herself flooded him and he asked, "What's your name?"

Rose turned and looked at him, her blue eyes so familiar. It didn't feel real that she was awake, looking at him like that.

"My name is Rose Dawson and I fell in love with you."

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. "I was so scared I lost you."

Rose adjusted herself on the bed, looking around. "Where … Where am I? What's going on? I … I was going to die. I was supposed to die. Did it not work? Did I fail?"

"No," Jake said. "You didn't fail. The Huntsclan is gone and you're the only one left with the Mark. We're at my house, with my parents. You made it again. You get to live!"

She blinked at him. "I get to live?"

Whatever Jake had been about to say died on his lips as Fu came panting into the room.

"Don't run from me like that," he huffed.

"Hello, Fu!" Rose said brightly.

Fu shook his head. "No, not going to be charmed. How are you feeling?"

"All right."

"Arms, legs, can you move everything?"

Rose shook out her limbs, the chains jangling. "I thought we were passed these. Can't you take them off?"

Jake reached for them.

"Wait," Fu said. "How do we know she's not a threat?"

"My name is Rose Dawson. It's the new year, which means I'm now twenty-six. I betrayed the Huntsclan and banished them from existence, using the secret of magic, which I betrayed to Jake before I did so. He trusted me, for the right reasons. Now, I'm asking you to, because I am really tired of being tied down. And, I don't have a headache, I am thinking clearly, nothing hurts, I'm just sore. And hungry. It's going to be really tasteless to say this but I would kill for real food."

"Definitely tasteless," Jake agreed.

"Please," Rose said, turning her eyes to Fu. "Let me out, _please_. I'll be good."

"I don't see anything wrong with letting her out," Jake said. "She seems to know what's going on."

Fu took a penlight from the bedside table.

"Let me do an exam while you're still pinned down. For my comfort."

"All right,' Rose agreed. "Go ahead."

Fu clambered up onto the bed and flashed the light in her eyes. Rose squinted at him.

"Are you still having premonitions?"

"Yes," Rose said. "Jake can't let Lao Shi talk on Monday because Lao Shi has too big of a temper. What's going on Monday? It's a big room, lots of stuffy looking people in it."

"And you made a bubble again."

"I always could," Rose said to Fu. "I thought Jake explained that part to you."

"No …" Fu said, turning to stare at Jake. "He hasn't explained a lot."

"The Huntsclan has always used magic and Rose had a natural predilection for it and she could always do that. Look, we're all caught up –"

"None of that was in any report."

"Gramps didn't make me file a report for the night the apocalypse ended," Jake said. "And, I thought she was dead. And, then I was too distracted by the fact that she wasn't and I –"

"Missed me?" Rose interrupted. "I feel like you probably missed me. I hope you missed me because you said, you know, before I died that you would and that you'd remember me. I remember that part."

Fu jumped from the bed. "All right. She's as stable as she ever was or wasn't. I leave her in your hands now, Jake."

"We're going to come right down," Jake promised. "There's real food. Trixie and Spud are here so you can meet them properly. My family, you know. You can show everyone Rose."

"I am Rose," she insisted.

Fu left the room without acknowledging that at all. Jake undid the restraints on her wrists and ankles and Rose reached down, rubbing the areas.

"Promise me that I will never be strapped to a bed again," she said. "I feel so tired. My body is so sore. I –"

"Have been in a coma for almost a month," Jake said. "It's all right."

Rose hesitated, like she didn't want to believe him, and then she looked back down at her hands.

"Am I really free? Can I do what I want?"

"Well, mostly. We're trying not to let anyone know that someone from the Huntsclan survived. We're worried that you'll be put on trial and I think … _Gramps_ and I both think, that we have proved that you are someone else now. You've repented, as far as we're concerned, and while the magical community and that of humans are still separated, we're passing our own verdict."

Rose smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that. It's still January, then, right? It's still –"

"Snowing? Not recently. If you feel up to it, we can go for a walk later. I'm sure you want to be out."

"Yeah, I do." Rose pushed the covers back and swung her feet to the floor. "Should we go down? You said we would."

Jake's hand slid over hers. "Wait a second."

Rose straightened up, swinging to face him.

"You said that you fell in love with me."

"You knew that I did," Rose said. "I told you the night of my second death. Before that, even, on Christmas."

"Was that real?"

"You're the most real thing I've ever had in my life. The most meaningful thing. I say a lot of words, Jake, but I've never lied to you. I meant what I said. I love you and I –"

"Rose, look at me."

She glanced at him shyly out of the corner of her eye and Jake shook her hand to get her full attention and a smile from her.

"I didn't say it that night because I was afraid and I know that I was afraid now. And, then, you were lost, and I kept thinking of all the things that I could have done differently."

"And now here I am, awake." Rose bit her lip and then asked, "Would you still do all of those things differently, now that I'm still here?"

"Yes." Jake drew Rose toward him, resting his forehead against hers. "I love you too."

Rose grabbed him, pulling him down toward her until her lips met his. He kissed her until neither of them could breathe and then, because Rose wasn't Rose without her babbling, "Really? Promise?"

"I promise," Jake said. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He knew that they were missed downstairs and so he took her by the hand. Rose had to stop off in the bathroom, fix her hair and straighten her clothing.

"I'm meeting your mother for the first time," she said. "She already knows of me – you said I tried to kill you."

"On more than one occasion," Jake said, since there was no use trying to deny the past between them. "Once or twice they might actually be mad about. But, I thought you were two separate people: the Huntsgirl and Rose."

"I thought about what you said, about having to know where I came from in order to know where I was now. And also what you said, about you not being bits and pieces of a human and a dragon but a whole thing when you put them all together. And, I think that's what I have to accept about myself. There's no her, there's no other. There's just who I was and who I am." Rose took a deep breath and faced him. "And if I can accept that you're a dragon and a man and love you anyway then why can't I accept that about myself? Right, I agree, no reason why I can't love myself for the good and bad too, especially since I want to be good. It's just easier if I try to accept that sometimes the bad comes out rather than not acknowledging it because in the end, doesn't that make me a worse person? I think it does. Do I look like I can meet your mother?"

"You're a good person because you're trying to be and you've been in a coma for almost a month. If you don't look picture perfect, no one is going to hold that against you."

"I don't need to look picture perfect," Rose corrected quickly. "I just need to look like I care, like this moment matters to me, because it does. I know how much they mean to you and what matters to you matters to me."

"You have nothing to prove," Jake said, leaning against the bathroom door jam and watched her fiddle with her hair. "You're so willing to accept them because they matter to me, what makes you think that they won't do the same for you?"

Rose looked at him, a look of long-time suffering, as if he were a boy that would simply never get it. In one long stride, she was standing right in front of him. Without permission, she yanked his shirt up, exposing the long scar across his torso.

"You said I did that. You said that I was the most painful thing that you had ever experienced. I almost killed you."

"And then you almost killed yourself. Karma says we're even. Let's go downstairs."

He offered her his hand and Rose took it without hesitation.

"No more worrying. Let's go."

She held her head high as they descended the stairs into the dining room. Someone had pulled up a chair between Jake and Haley for Rose.

"Hello," Rose said, nodding to everyone. "It's nice to meet you."

The chirp of cricket would have been deafening in the beat of silence that followed but it was Jake's father that stood up to shake her hand.

"Well, it's so nice to meet you. We've been hoping that you'd wake up. You're the first girl that Jake's ever brought home, you know."

"_Dad_," Jake groaned but it was exactly what he'd been expecting of his father and it did help break the ice.

"I'm sure you were thinking of a different circumstance."

"Well, yes," he agreed, "but, here, have a seat. Susan's such a good cook, you know. Oh, can you eat? We were worried about you for a while."

Rose took the chair that Jake pulled out for her. "I think so. Everything smells so good that I have to at least try. Thank you for letting me sit down to dinner with you." This was directed to Mom and she put a smile on her face.

"We're very interested to know you," she said and Jake could sense the diplomacy behind her words, although Rose was just smiling about it.

Trixie and Spud were equally uncomfortable while Gramps and Fu elected to say nothing to her. Finally, Haley, with a ruffle of her hair asked a question.

"I'm curious, Rose, do you remember anything about when you were in a coma?"

"Oh!" Rose stared at her. "You want to go to med school, right? You should leave the state, you know, there's a professor in … I can't tell where she'll be by the time you apply but she's not here. You should study under her. Um, Sarah, something … Chambers? Sarah Chambers."

"I –"

"But, I don't really remember anything specific from the coma," Rose continued on. It was something that Jake knew well but he supposed, that the way she didn't pause to discuss any of the information she shared would be annoying. "I remember knowing my body hurt but not feeling it. I remember hearing voices, one that I didn't know and then Jake's and I remember knowing it was his voice. But, other than that, I don't know what was said or where I was or anything like that."

"Nothing specific?" Jake asked.

Rose shook her head. "Why? What were you saying to me?"

"Nothing important," Jake insisted but he could tell by the look in her eye that she wasn't about to drop it.

She was, however, raised with etiquette in the Huntsclan and she let the issue drop at the table, instead complimenting his mother's cooking and asking her about the food. As Jake predicted, his father jumped into the conversation. Slowly but surely, Rose was folded into the flow of things. Gramps and Haley returned to their discussion and Jake chatted with Trixie and Spud. When the meal was over, people were still watching Rose but not with the wary expression of someone watching a ravenous wolf approach.

"Is there anything to do with clean-up that I can help with?" Rose asked.

"You just came out of a coma," Jake said, "you don't have to push yourself."

"I feel fine," Rose insisted. "I feel sane. There's no reason that I can't help clean up when I was allowed to sit and eat. Plus, I've never washed a dish before and I'm curious about it."

"You've never washed a dish before!?" Haley said. "How?"

"There were people who did that for me. I was important; there were bet … other things for me to be doing with my time." She made a face. "In retrospect, they weren't better. They were pretty bad things." She smiled at Haley. "Can you teach me how to wash a dish?"

"Yeah, all right," Haley agreed, a little bemused. "We'll be in the kitchen if you get separation anxiety, Jake."

Jake watched them go and then went to the living room, where Spud and Trixie were stretched out on the couch.

"Listening to her talk is like being on a roller coaster that you can't get off," Trixie said when he walked in.

"That's pretty accurate," Jake agreed.

"Up, down, up down," Spud said, moving his arm to illustrate his point.

Jake shoved their feet from the couch so he'd have room to sit. "Yeah, every other word Rose says is cause for her to go off on another tangent."

"It'd give me a headache listening to that," Trixie said, "but if you're happy and convinced she's not in the kitchen murdering Haley, what can I say?"

"A lot, judging from past experiences," Jake said, not even flinching as she shoved his shoulder. "She's not going to kill Haley and Haley would put up way more of a fight if she was trying to anyway. We'd know."

"And, you're happy?" Spud asked.

Jake nodded, knowing that he wasn't, yet. Not completely. He would be fully happy when he had no fear that he was going to fall asleep and wake up again to find that it had all been a dream, that she was still in a coma or, worse, dead. He was happier in this moment, everyone he loved safely under one roof, than he had been in the past year and Jake knew that the world could only look up from here. The war was over.

"We're going to head home, Jakey. We'll see you later?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah, you won't get rid of me now."

"Good, we missed you."

Trixie hugged him and then went to say goodbye to everyone else while Spud lingered.

"If Rose has never even washed a dish, what else hasn't she done?"

"It's kind of crazy, right, everything we know the Huntsgirl has done but she's never washed a dish. Probably never cleaned anything either."

"Like, I don't clean, but at least I _can_ clean."

"She's never really had any fun either," Jake said, "so when she's healed, we're going to have a lot of catching up to do. Amusement parks –"

"She's probably never even had a corndog!"

"They had gourmet chefs at the Clan. She was eating caviar and drinking Cristal."

Spud collapsed into the couch. "Life is so unfair."

"She just had to senselessly murder to achieve such great heights."

"When you put it like that, it sounds less glamourous," Spud agreed.

"Spud, you comin'?"

"Guess we're ready to go." Spud pulled himself off the couch, as if it were the most strenuous thing he'd ever done. "Thanks for the food, Ms. L!"

"You're welcome."

Jake waved as his friends left and then he went to the kitchen, leaning against the doorway and watching Haley and Rose wash the dishes. Rose was a perfectionist about it while Haley was quick with the drying rag.

"Are you going to help?" Rose asked without turning around.

"Are you kidding? Your volunteering got me _out _of dish duty."

"You're much faster than Jake ever was," Haley assured Rose. "It would take him forever."

"Because it was boring and there were too many dishes and –"

"What did you do when you were living alone with Gramps?" Haley said. "Don't tell me you made him do all the dishes."

"Do you really think I could have _made _Gramps do any dishes? No, we were just responsible for our own dishes or mess or whatever. And, then, I was responsible for Rose's dishes. Gramps said I brought her there so she was my problem."

"I'm very good at being a problem," Rose said, handing the last plate over to Haley. "He hated me."

"I think I said you were frustrating and exhausting," Jake said. "With reasons to hate you."

"Semantics," Rose said. "Is that everything, Haley?"

"Yeah. I can't believe we were done that fast," she said.

"Motivation is key," Rose said. "Haley has a date … study date, I believe you call them, right? And, you said we would go for a walk. I'd like to get out and stretch me legs."

"Do you ever have to talk back?" Haley asked. "Or does she just see your responses and keep going?"

"She makes it sound like she knows more than she does," Jake said.

"I know more than I reveal," Rose protested. "The depth of my knowledge would frighten you."

"Yeah, okay," Jake said. "Let's go find you a coat if we're headed out. It's cold."

She followed him around the house as they found her an old pair of his mother's boots, an old jacket of his, and a scarf, hat, and mittens pilfered from Haley's collection.

"It's not even snowing," Rose said.

"Coma. January in New York. I need no other reason." Jake put the hat on her head. "Let me take care of you."

He slid his own coat on and then they were out of the house, walking down the sidewalk. Rose looped her arm through his and cuddled close to his side.

"Jake, what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

Rose shrugged. "The Clan is gone. Magical creatures are going to be free to walk about but you'll be needed through the adjustment period. There are some humans that agreed with the Huntsclan once they realized that we weren't crazy and that magical creatures were real."

"Is that how it's going to go?"

"It's the most likely course but, as I said, your grandfather's temper will turn off many people so it's probably best you talk."

"Okay."

"And, I don't actually exist," Rose said. "I don't have a birth certificate or anything like that –"

"Fu can get you one. Do you have a middle name? Did you want to make one up?"

"I have to hide my Mark."

Jake paused and tugged the sleeve of her coat down. "I mean, your hands were pretty wrecked by whatever it was that you were doing. I don't know if anyone would see it if they weren't looking for it."

"The answers guy," Rose said.

"What? Not used to it? I do come up with things sometimes, you know."

Rose laughed. "Here's the test because this is the real reason I asked."

"Hit me."

"What about you and me?"

Jake's step faltered and he nearly tripped as he looked down at her. "What do you mean?"

"What happens to you and me?"

"You're here when I didn't think you would be. We're going to be lucky if I can stand to let you out of my sight."

Rose smirked. "But –"

"Nope, my turn. We either have to stay with my parents or Gramps for the time being because neither of us have ever had a real job but, you know, there's time for that and for us getting our own place or our own life. That's my plan. And, don't think I forgot anything you said about travelling and living because we'll do that to. Every continent, snow in every country, smoke a pot. Whatever it is you want. There's nothing holding us back."

Rose laughed. "I think you might actually turn out to be a good boyfriend."

"Yeah, I think you're the jealous type."

"Me?" Rose said, tossing her hair. "Yeah, definitely. Best not to let anyone that's not Trixie or family talk to you, just in case. I'm supposedly pretty dangerous."

"Supposedly."

"I killed the Clan. I did what you couldn't. Just saying."

Jake laughed. "How did you do it?"

"Hold on. My legs are tired."

"Do you want to go in?"

"No."

Before Jake could move, she had let go of him and then swung herself onto his back, securing her legs around his waist and her arms around her neck.

"What happens if I say you're too heavy?"

"I would say that you're lying." She tapped her fingers across his collarbone. "Coma diet. Don't recommend it. But, also, biceps like yours aren't for show."

Jake hooked his hands along her calves, meandering along. "It sounds like you've been checking me out."

"I'll admit nothing," Rose said but she kissed the back of his neck.

"Rose."

"What?"

"It's snowing."

She reached her hand out, past his head, snowflakes gathering on her mittens.

"Where should we go first?" Rose asked. "Anywhere in the world."

"I want to actually see China," Jake said. "We could start in Asia, do Europe, head to Australia, then South America?"

"When are we doing Antarctica?"

"_Antarctica?"_

"I love the snow," Rose reminded him.

"I am a creature of _fire_."

"And, so, you can keep yourself warm when we're there." She ruffled his hair. "You said whatever I wanted."

"I don't remember saying that."

"I do."

"You could be lying to me."

Rose rested her head down against his shoulder blade, squeezing him tightly. "I don't do that. Not to you." A beat of silence then, "The city is so pretty at night. The world feels different when I'm not seeing it through a mask."

"You going to miss the mask?"

"Never," Rose said. She hopped down from his back, grabbing his hand and turning him around to face her. "I'm going to love having a life instead."

"I want to kiss you," Jake said.

"Good because I really want you to."

Jake slid his hands around her waist and pulled her toward him. There was no pressure to this kiss, no time line in which one of them would have to walk away. Their lives were stretching out in front of them and, though Rose had more of an idea than Jake did about where they would end up, he didn't want to ask. He just wanted to enjoy the ride, now that they were together.

So, there, in the snow on a New York sidewalk, Jake kissed her how he'd been dreaming of doing during the time that he'd been praying for her to come back to him.

"I knew you'd fall in love with me," she said cockily.

"How long are you going to rub that in?"

"For as long as you'll put up with me," Rose promised. "Which I think is going to be a long time."

"Can't wait to find out."

There were snowflakes clinging to her long blonde hair and her cheeks were a bright pink. Jake looked at her and only saw the woman that she had become, the woman that she had chosen to be, and not the persona of the Huntsgirl that she had been forced to grow into. He reached out his hand.

"Hold my claws."

Rose laughed at the red scaled, talon-tipped hand that he offered.

"If you insist."

Rose took his hand and they carried on down the block, Rose kicking up snow and sticking out her tongue to catch the flakes. Jake stuck his tongue out when she did, letting her happiness infect him and fill him. The war was over, the peace had come, and no matter what happened next, he was back where he belonged, with the people he loved most. Even when the person he loved most was probably the last person that he expected.

"Can you make your hand a hand again? Scales itch. Do you get itchy when you're a dragon? Hey, do you have to bathe your dragon side or is it enough to just clean one?"

Rose continued to talk, pausing every other sentence for him to squeeze in his answers, but this was Rose, this was who had missed, and he could smile and drink it in, because she had saved the world.

"And to answer your question from earlier," Rose said, "my middle name is Elizabeth."

"Why?"

"I always thought that was the name a mother should have."

"Will I ever find out everything about you?"

"I hope not," Rose said, "and I hope I never find out everything about you. I want to keep discovering you; I think that's the best part about people, is that there's always some new part of them to find out about."

Jake wrapped his arm around her waist as they turned the corner and headed for home, together.

**I rewrote this damn chapter so many times you guys. I really hope that you end up liking the final product because I'm pretty satisfied with it. Let me know what you think.**

**Don't forget to check out **_**Operation Defect **_**which comes out next Thursday!**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter and don't forget that you can find me on a tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now!**

**~TLL~**


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